Allegations have surfaced of criminal activity at British banks that involves signatures on documents that are not those of the authorised signatories. Compliance officers at private banks might want to investigate on their own account.

Andrew Bailey, the Financial Conduct Authority's CEO, and chairman George Randell last appeared in front of the influential Parliamentary Treasury Committee on 25th June. At that meeting, Steve Baker MP said: "It has been brought to my attention — I have been shown some evidence — that in certain business processes, such as home repossessions, the act of delivering capacity for these business processes might mean that paperwork is signed by somebody who is not the authorised signatory within the bank before taking possession of someone’s home.

"I have been shown various signatures that demonstrate that it is clearly the case that within some institutions processes are taking place where it appears that anyone is signing these documents...it does seem that is therefore a fraudulent transaction. Are you aware that this phenomenon may be happening? If so, what are you doing?"

Bailey replied: "I am aware of it. Yes, it does get talked about. If you would like to bring the evidence to us, we will look at it."

By way of submitting evidence, the Rt Hon Nicky Morgan MP, the chair of the Treasury Committee, has today written to the Financial Conduct Authority and the National Crime Agency to ask them to talk to the people in charge of the Bank Signature Forgery Campaign to review the evidence that they have and investigate as appropriate. This is likely to lead to the issue coming up in regulatory visits. Many fraud cases and many enforcement cases against investment managers and advisors around the world involve the forging of signatures and the falsification of authorisation and any external or regulatory investigation in line with Parliament's present fixation might uncover larger problems of that kind at financial institutions whose compliance officers are not vigilant enough.