Former Northern Rock executive fined, banned

LONDON (AP) - Britain's financial regulator has banned the former finance director of mortgage lender Northern Rock - the country's first major casualty of the global credit crunch - and fined him 320,000 pounds ($500,000) for misreporting figures on loan arrears.

David Jones is the third director to be sanctioned by the Financial Services Authority after former deputy chief executive David Baker and former managing credit director Richard Barclay. The agency said Tuesday that Jones had numerous opportunities to "put things right but failed to do so."

The trio are the only senior executives of a British banking institution to be formally penalized for misconduct in the wake of the government's multibillion bailout of the sector in 2008.