The regulator said Black has admitted that his conduct fell significantly short of the standards reasonably to be expected of him in that he breached the ICAI’s fundamental principle of professional competence and due care in relation to the PMS financial statements for each of year ends 2007 and 2008.

The FRC’s disciplinary tribunal found that Black erroneously and unreasonably assumed that PMS was complying with the prohibition in its own rules on taking deposits and was in compliance with applicable legislation, without having an adequate understanding of the regulatory framework that applied to PMS and without addressing his own mind to whether the board of PMS in fact had an adequate basis for reaching any such conclusions, or whether these were questions which required expert legal advice, based on up to date information about PMS’s business.

Black was also found to have failed to take any adequate steps to address PMS’s dangerously low liquidity levels during 2008, or adequately to consider the implications for the continued use of the going concern assumption.

Under the agreed settlement, Black is to receive a reprimand and pay a sum of £50,000 as a contribution towards the regulator’s costs.

Nearly 10,000 members of PMS lost access to their savings when the society was forced into administration in November 2008 after a run on its funds. A rescue package underwritten by the Westminster government and the Northern Ireland Executive was agreed in 2011.

The FRC investigation into Moore Stephens (NI), as auditors of PMS, is ongoing.

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