A Financial Penalty may be applied as a stand-alone sanction or as part of a suite of measures designed to remedy the compliance failing. The DM should ensure that the decision to issue a penalty is: supported by valid and clearly articulated reasoning/rationale.
Step 1 - determine a basic penalty taking into account the seriousness of the breach (the nature and impact of the conduct in question), and any aggravating or mitigating factors relating to the breach; benchmarked against the firm's turnover, or individual's income
Step 2 - adjust the penalty to take into account specific mitigating factors relating to the respondent's conduct after the breach or financial circumstances
Step 3 - remove any financial benefit arising from the conduct giving rise to the breach.