Banco Santander Share News (BNC)

British financial regulators have fined the UK arm of Spanish banking group Santander nearly 12.4m pounds over financial advice problems.The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it had fined Santander £12,377,800 after the watchdog found "serious failings in the way it offered financial advice from its bank."In particular, there was a significant risk of Santander UK giving unsuitable advice to its customers, its approach to considering investors' risk appetites was inadequate, and for some people it failed to regularly check that investments continued to meet their needs - despite promising to do so, the FCA said.The FCA's Director of Enforcement & Financial Crime, Tracey McDermott, said: "Customers trusted Santander to help them manage their money wisely, but it failed to live up to that responsibility. Santander let its customers down badly."The FCA's predecessor, the Financial Services Authority, first put concerns to Santander UK in late 2012, after which the bank immediately decided to stop giving financial advice in its branches to prevent more problems.In agreement with the FCA, Santander will now contact all affected customers and, for any sales that were sub-standard, redress will be paid where due.The FCA said Santander UK agreed to settle at an early stage of the investigation so its fine was reduced by 30%. Otherwise it would have been fined £17,682,730.Santander UK said in a statement that it had co-operated fully with the FCA's probe and had already begun taking steps to improve its branch-based investment advice service between 2010 and 2012.It said it had completely overhauled the service since December 2012 and was confident of achieving positive results for customers. Head of UK Banking, Steve Pateman said: "We regret elements of Santander UK's historic branch-based investment sales processes did not meet the required regulatory standards and apologise to any customers who have concerns."We expect customer detriment to be low given the performance of the underlying investments and, as the FCA acknowledges, Santander has seen very few complaints from customers. "Nevertheless, to ensure that any concerns our customers may have are addressed we will be writing to them this summer, to offer them an opportunity to withdraw from their investment or have their sale reviewed. Customers need take no action now and should wait to receive letters from us."PW