The Financial ConductAuthority has banned Demetrios Hadjigeorgiou from holding senior managementpositions in financial services and fined him £56,400 over failures at formerdiscretionary fund manager SVS Securities Plc.The case has alsoresulted in regulatory action outside the UK. Earlier, the Dubai Financial ServicesAuthority banned former SVS CEO Kulvir Virk from performing any function connected withfinancial services in or from the Dubai International Financial Centre.FCA Bans Former SVS ExecutiveHadjigeorgiou wasSVS’s finance director before becoming CEO. He served in the role until shortlybefore the firm entered special administration.The FCA saidHadjigeorgiou failed to properly manage SVS and protect customers’ interests.The firm invested customer money, including pension savings, in high-riskproducts while receiving significant payments from the companies that issuedthem.Hadjigeorgiou alsofailed to challenge a decision to reduce the value of customers’ bondinvestments by 10% when they sought to sell them. The reduction generated£359,800 for SVS, while customers were not clearly informed about it. Someconsequently lost part of their pension savings.The regulator foundthat Hadjigeorgiou failed to exercise due skill, care and diligence in managingSVS.The latest actionfollows an FCA Decision Notice that proposed an £84,600 penalty and aprohibition order. Hadjigeorgiou referred the decision to the Upper Tribunalbut later settled with the FCA and withdrew his referral. The final penalty wasreduced to £56,400.SVS Collapse Leaves 879 CustomersExposedSVS entered specialadministration and was later dissolved. The FCA said 879 customers had investeda combined £69.1 million in bonds through the firm. The bonds later defaulted,leaving customers unlikely to recover more than a fraction of their investments.The FCA also tookaction against former SVS CEO and majority shareholder Virk and former head ofcompliance David Stephen over their roles in the treatment of customer pensionfunds. Virk was fined £215,500 and permanently banned from UK financial services.Therese Chambers,joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said:"Building up a pension for retirement is one of the most importantinvestments you can make."She added: "Wheresenior leaders fail to put customer interests first, we will act."This article was written by Tareq Sikder at www.financemagnates.com.