The Financial Services Authority will for the first time launch a court challenge to the findings of an independent tribunal that reviewed the £150,000 (€187,772) fine it levied on a UK firm of solicitors in September 2006, in the latest sign that the financial regulator is prepared to defend its decisions.

The FSA said in a statement today it has applied to the Financial Services and Markets Tribunal, the independent body set up under the auspices of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 to review certain decisions made by the regulator, for leave to appeal the tribunal’s decision relating to the FSA’s fine for Fox Hayes, a Leeds-based solicitors.