Former Marsh Ireland broker banned from senior finance roles

Former Marsh Ireland insurance broker Liam Heffernan has been banned by the Central Bank of Ireland from carrying out senior roles in regulated financial firms, after an investigation into matters during his time with the company including “unauthorised creation and modification” of insurance documents.

Mr Heffernan, with an address on the South Circular Road in Dublin 8, declined to comment when The Irish Times reached him at his current place of employment with a big engineering company.

A spokesman for law firm Fieldfisher, which represented Mr Heffernan as he resisted the regulatory ban, also declined to comment.

A central bank spokeswoman refused to comment beyond a statement published on its website this week, which named Mr Heffernan but did not identify the brokerage where he had previously been employed.

However multiple sources have confirmed that the regulatory investigation related to Mr Heffernan’s time with Marsh Ireland, which came to an end in 2018.

A spokesman for Marsh Ireland declined to comment. However, the firm said in September, 2018, when it first emerged it had identified and reported irregularities on a “limited number of corporate client accounts handled by a former employee” to the central bank, that it conducts business “to the highest ethical and professional standards” and does not tolerate behaviour that deviates from these.

The central bank said its fitness and probity investigation related to “matters that arise in the context of his employment at an insurance broker, including the unauthorised creation and modification of insurance documentation”.

A prohibition notice was issued to Mr Heffernan after its investigation, banning him from carrying out any controlled functions in any regulated service provider “for an indefinite period”.

The central bank first petitioned the High Court to rubber stamp the prohibition in December 2021, according to court filings. Several affidavits were filed by parties involved in the case over the past 2½ years before it was settled on Tuesday.

“Persons performing controlled functions must act in accordance with the applicable standards of fitness and probity,” said Seána Cunningham, director of enforcement and anti-money laundering at the central bank.

“Where an individual is suspected to have failed to meet these standards, the Central Bank may use its statutory powers to investigate. If warranted, the central bank will prohibit an individual from performing controlled functions in order to uphold public trust and confidence in the financial system and protect users of financial services.”

Marsh, part of the New York-headquartered Marsh McLennon group, is the world’s largest insurance broker and risk adviser. Other arms of the wider group include Mercer, the pensions advisory company, management consulting business Oliver Wyman and the Guy Carpenter risk and reinsurance specialist.

The latest set of financial accounts filed by Marsh Ireland Brokers Limited with the Companies Registration Office show that the company posted a €23.2 million pretax profit in 2022 on client service revenues of €94.6 million. That was up from a €15.7 million that was delivered on turnover of €80.6 million for the previous year.

Almost 70 per cent of the revenue was generated in 2022 in the Republic, with the remainder spread across the rest of Europe, including the UK.

The central bank’s fitness and probity regime was introduced in 2010 under reforms in the wake of the financial crisis, to ensure that individuals in key and customer-facing positions “are competent and capable, honest, ethical and of integrity and also financially sound”.

This allows the regulator to vet individuals nominated by firms for senior positions, but also to investigate people in such roles when it suspects they fall short of required standards.