Former Northern Rock PLC chief financial officer David Jones became the third executive of the British bank banned from working in the industry in the wake of the mortgage lender's near collapse during the credit crisis.
Jones was fined $494,000 for allowing false mortgage data to appear in the bank's 2006 accounts, the Financial Services Authority said Tuesday. The correct figures would have increased the number of late payments by customers by more than 50%, or quadrupled the tally of repossessions, according to the regulator.
Former Northern Rock deputy chief executive officer David Baker and former managing credit director Richard Barclay were banned and fined by the FSA on April 13 for hiding the number of impaired mortgages from the bank's board and the wider market.
Northern Rock was the first British casualty of the U.S. subprime market's collapse and was taken over by the British government in February 2008.
Jones, who received a 20% discount on his fine for cooperating with the regulator, said Tuesday that the FSA failed to take into account that shareholders had received sufficient information. He left the bank in April.
Jones called the penalty "unfair and disproportionate." He said he will pursue jobs "building on over 30 years' experience in finance."
