Lisburn mortgage broker Noel Heaney has been banned by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for not treating his customers fairly.
He was described by the FSA as a man who “lacks integrity and is not competent to run an authorised firm”.
Neither Noel Heaney nor his previously authorised firm Heaney Finance is now permitted to undertake financial services that are regulated by the FSA.
Heaney operated his business from Longstone Street in Lisburn and offered to arrange mortgages, personal loans and debt consolidation. “This is a blatant example of a business man taking insufficient interest in the conduct of business written in his name and ignoring warnings about its deficiencies,” said Margaret Cole, FSA director of enforcement and |financial crime. “Put simply, Heaney failed to treat his customers fairly and we are holding him to account for it.” Heaney was guilty of “wide-ranging management and control problems across his business”, said the FSA, having entrusted the running of his business to an inexperienced employee and failed to ensure that his advisers received adequate training and support. |The lack of proper management controls meant there was a real risk of his business being used by third parties to commit mortgage fraud, concluded the FSA.