The boss of the 'London Whale' trader just got fined nearly £800,000

Britain's Financial Conduct Authority has fined the boss of the so-called "London Whale" trader nearly £800,000 ($1.15 million) for failing to communicate properly with the regulator.

Achilles Macris - who managed the activities of Bruno Iksil, a trader dubbed "The London Whale" for his massive legal market bets - has been fined £792,000 ($1.14 billion) by the FCA for what it calls a failure "to be open and co-operative" with them over an investigation into massive losses in JP Morgan's derivatives business.

Iksil was at the centre of the $6.2 billion (£4.3 billion) JP Morgan legal trading loss of 2012, when massive derivatives bets went sour, and cost the bank up to $1 billion (£690 million) in penalties.

In a statement released on Tuesday morning, FCA enforcement chief Mark Steward said:

A failure to communicate openly with us can affect the well-running of markets and cause unnecessary harm to investors, especially in times of financial stress or crisis. Regulators need open communication with firms so that better decisions can be made sooner. Mr Macris should have explained the position more squarely especially when he knew the Synthetic Credit Portfolio's losses had worsened.

Responding to his fine, Macris also released a statement. He said:

Today's outcome represents a major climb-down by the FCA, after four years that I have spent fighting to clear my name. The Final Notice issued to JP Morgan by the FCA in 2013 wrongly and unfairly accused me of deliberately misleading the FSA. That Notice was released to the public without the FCA ever having properly heard my side of the story. Today the FCA has finally accepted that this allegation against me was utterly wrong.

Today's result also vindicates my actions in bringing my third party reference seeking to have this allegation removed from the JP Morgan Notice. The FCA demonstrated a total disregard for my rights as an individual in its haste to issue the JP Morgan Notice and impose a large fine on the firm.

This is a developing story and Business Insider will update it as we get more information.