The Financial Services Authority has handed out its biggest individual fine since the record penalty for hedge fund manager Philippe Jabre last year, after finding a former Citigroup equity research analyst guilty of market misconduct.

The UK financial markets regulator today fined Roberto Casoni, the former head of Italian small and mid-cap equity research at Citigroup, £52,500 (€76,692) for selectively leaking details of his research on an Italian leasing bank ahead of publication in January last year.