New rules for vetting and making bankers directly accountable for their actions will include an annual health check by their employer, Britain’s financial regulator said yesterday.

The new rules, that aim to make it easier for regulators to punish bankers for irresponsible decisions, were called for by lawmakers after few bankers were brought to book despite the fact that several banks had to be bailed out by taxpayers in the 2007-2009 financial crisis.

“Today’s policy measures are an important step in ensuring that regulators have the tools at their disposal to hold individuals to account and they build on the cultural change we are beginning to see in the boardrooms of firms across the country,” said Martin Wheatley, the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) chief executive.

The FCA set out how it would implement the Senior Managers Regime and provided more information on new conduct rules forbank staff.

The new rules, that will need to come into force by March 7, 2016, include a certification regime that will require firms to run annual checks to assess the “fitness and propriety” of staff who are “deemed capable of causing significant harm to the firm or any of its customers”.

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