The total cost of fines issued to companies and individuals by the Financial Services Authority in 2011 was £66,144,839.

This was the second largest total amount of fines issued in one calendar year but was down from £89m issued in 2010.

The largest fine issued in 2011 was to HSBC in December which was fined £10.5m for failings in suitability of investment advice provided by NHFA Ltd.

The incident was controversial as the age of the average investor was 83 years old meaning they had little chance of getting back any money they lost.

However, this fine was substantially less than the biggest fine ever issued by the FSA which was a fine of £33m to JP Morgan Securities.

The fine, issued in June 2010, was for failing to protect client money by segregating it appropriately.

Other serious fines issued by the FSA last year include £7.7m to Barclays Bank for failures in relation to the sale of two funds, the seventh biggest fine ever issued by the FSA.

Insurance intermediary Willis Limited was fined £6.8m for failings in its anti-bribery and corruption systems and controls, £6.3m to Coutts and Company for failures relating to the sale of AIG funds and £5.9m to Credit Suisse for systems and control failings relating to sales of structured capital at risk products.