The FCA has published a report setting out the work it has done to July 2021 to implement the recommendations from:
- the Independent Investigation into the FCA’s Regulation of London Capital & Finance plc (the Gloster Report); and
- the Independent Review into the FSA and FCA’s handling of the Connaught Income Fund Series 1 and connected companies (the Parker Report).
The FCA aims to demonstrate:
- it applies its standards robustly to prevent bad actors entering the regulated sector – in the year to March 2021, 1 in 6 firms which applied for FCA authorisation were refused, rejected or withdrew their application after engagement with the FCA’s Authorisations Division;
- for firms which are authorised, this robust approach should continue through the FCA’s Supervision and Enforcement functions – the FCA is taking robust action so that firms which hold a permission use it for the purpose intended. Where appropriate the FCA will be increasingly looking at firms’ business models holistically; and
- the FCA takes robust and effective action against fraud and scams – in the year to March 2021, the FCA opened over 1,700 supervisory cases involving scams or higher risk investments. There were over 400 cases where the FCA took further action including enforcement action and nearly 200 firms and individuals are currently under investigation for unauthorised financial business.