Emma RadmoreTherese Chambers has spoken on the FCA’s evolving approach to enforcement. She noted the key drivers of:
- intervening earlier, acting faster and with more focus and
- taking a targeted, outcomes based approach
She said tackling financial crime is key to market protection, and that AML investigations constitute a meaningful proportion of the enforcement caseload. The FCA supervises around 18,000 firms under the MLRs.
She moved on to discuss the importance both of learning lessons from the past and of moving with the times and using data and technology to their fullest potential.
In terms of investigations, the average investigation in 2023/24 took 42 months to complete – while there are good reasons for taking this amount of time, the FCA believes it can improve. It has been closing investigations more quickly and is currently negotiating to settle a number of investigations in under 2 years from the start of the investigation.
Finally, she discussed the elephant in the room of the FCA proposals to name and shame those under investigation. She restated the reasons for the proposals and said that the idea was not to take a blanket approach and suddenly name every firm under investigation, but to assess on a case by case basis following assessment of clearly defined criteria. She said that “later this autumn” the FCA plans to provide greater detail of how its plans would work in practice, including worked examples. She said that, despite all the serious concerns raised in response to its consultation, the FCA continues to think the case for a degree more transparency remains strong.