Clifford Chance

FCA issues public censure in relation to breach of listing and transparency rules

27 October 2020

On 26 October, the FCA issued a public censure against Aviva plc for failing to take "reasonable care" in relation to a statement made in its March 2018 announcement of its preliminary year-end results.

The statement highlighted Aviva's ability to cancel some of its preference shares at par in a section of the announcement discussing returns to shareholders and liability management. Whilst the statement did not say that Aviva intended to use that right to cancel at par, the FCA found that the statement was reasonably capable of being read that way, particularly by retail investors (who made up a large proportion of the preference shareholders) and that Aviva had failed to take reasonable care to foresee and address this potential misunderstanding.

Download PDF