Banker's oath
The FSMA imposes disciplinary sanctions in compliance with the rights of defence. In doing so, the FSMA must take into account certain circumstances, such as the seriousness of the infringement, its impact on the interests and reputation of the banking sector, or the financial loss suffered by third parties.
An appeal against the sanction decision may be lodged with the Council of State.
To safeguard the exclusive prudential jurisdiction of the prudential supervisory authority over fit & proper persons working for credit institutions, the FSMA has no enforcement powers over these persons. If the (Deputy) Investigations Officer concludes that there has been an infringement of the banker’s oath rules by a fit & proper person working for a credit institution, the FSMA will transfer the disciplinary file to the NBB or, where appropriate, to the foreign prudential supervisory authority, so that the prudential authorities can exercise their prerogatives in this respect[1].
The FSMA may impose an administrative sanction on a banking service provider who fails to comply with a professional ban or training obligation imposed by the FSMA.
[1] The Law of 20 December 2023 containing various financial provisions has, for example, reinstated paragraph 7 of Article 236 of the Law of 25 April 2014 on the legal status and supervision of credit institutions. That paragraph provides for the possibility for the NBB or the ECB to impose, in certain cases, a professional ban on exercising functions in a credit institution for a maximum period of 5 years.