Safra Sarasin’s Irish funds management unit fined €385,000

The Central Bank has fined Swiss private bank J Safra Sarasin's Irish fund management unit €385,000 for regulatory breaches in relation to how it handled a merger of two funds it was responsible for four years ago.

Sarasin Funds Management (Ireland) Limited's breaches justified a fine of €550,000, but it was reduced by 30 per cent in accordance with a standard discount given by the regulator on the settlement of enforcement actions.

Sarasin Funds Management (Ireland) is separate to Sarasin & Partners Ireland Ltd, which the Swiss group agreed to sell to Davy late last year, a business that was reported at the time to have "hundreds of millions" of euro of assets under management, specialising in ethical investing for charities, private clients and institutional investors.

The Central Bank said that Sarasin Funds Management (Ireland), an authorised management company for EU-regulated UCITS collective funds, breached certain investment concentration restrictions when two funds it was ultimately responsible for were merged in 2017.