The Bank of London Group has been fined £2m by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) for misleading the regulator over its capital positions.

The financial penalty is in relation to failings that occurred between October 2021 and May 2024.

A PRA investigation found that the Bank of London Group and its parent financial holding company, Oplyse Holdings, also failed to act with integrity, failed to be open and cooperative with the regulator, and failed to maintain adequate financial resources.

This is the first time the PRA has fined a firm for failing to conduct its business with integrity, and the first time the PRA has taken enforcement action against a parent financial holding company of a firm.

Both the Bank of London Group and Oplyse Holdings failed to comply with their regulatory capital requirements “over an extended period”, the PRA said, while the investigation also found they repeatedly misled the regulator as to their actual capital positions. Most seriously, this included providing the PRA with several fabricated documents intended to provide a false picture of the capital position.

Deputy governor for prudential regulation and CEO of the PRA, Sam Woods, said: “Trust in banking in the UK requires integrity and open communication with the PRA from all banks, regardless of their size.

“The Bank of London Group and Oplyse Holdings fell well below our standards, resulting in today’s penalty which marks the PRA’s first finding against a firm for acting without integrity.”

The PRA said the breaches in the case had warranted a financial penalty of £12m, although the Bank of London Group and Oplyse Holdings both demonstrated that payment of such a penalty would have caused them serious financial hardship, before the regulator agreed to reduce the penalty to £2m.

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