The FOS has published a policy statement setting out its approach to charging professional representatives a fee of £250 if they wish to refer a case to its service. The new arrangements will take effect from 1 April...
Category - Enforcement & Litigation
FCA secures £500,000 confiscation order against insider dealer
The FCA has secured a confiscation order of £586,711.01 against Mohammed Zina, a convicted insider dealer. The order amounts to all of Mr Zina’s available assets, and must be paid within 3 months, otherwise he...
FCA outlines supervision strategy for CMCs
The FCA has written to claims management companies (CMCs) outlining its supervision strategy, including its updated view of the harms and risks that CMCs pose and its expectations for firms in the sector. The FCA...
FCA fines for MiFIR transaction reporting failures
The FCA has imposed its first fine for failing to report transactions as required by MiFIR. Infinox Capital Limited failed to submit transaction reports for single stock CFD trades executed through one of its corporate...
Clydesdale/FOS appeal to be heard by December
The Civil Appeals case tracker shows that the appeal relating to judicial review of the FOS decision on DCAs is to be heard “by 8 December 2025”. As a reminder, the appeals in relation to the court cases on...
FCA settles care home investment scheme claim against solicitors
The FCA has settled a claim against solicitors Lupton Fawcett LLP in respect of work undertaken for the Qualia Group by a former member of the firm. The FCA previously brought a successful claim in the High Court...
Motor finance commissions and lender liability: the story so far
Amid reports that now HM Treasury is seeking to intervene in the Supreme Court case, read our article summarising what’s happened so far…..
FCA publishes summary grounds of intervention in motor finance appeal
The FCA has published summary grounds of intervention in support of its application to intervene in the appeals relating to motor dealer-broker commissions. The FCA wants to intervene in writing and for up to an hour...
Designated Activities enforcement Regs take effect
The Regulations amending FSMA to give the FCA necessary supervision and enforcement powers in respect of the new Designated Activities have been made and take effect on 14 January. The new powers apply in respect of the...
Regulators consult on FSCS management expenses levy limit 2025/26
The FCA and PRA are consulting on proposals for the Management Expenses Levy Limit (MELL) for the FSCS in 2025/26. The regulators propose the MELL for 2025/26 will be £108.6m, consisting of: the FSCS management expenses...
FCA fines Arian Financial for failings relating to cum-ex trading
The FCA has fined Arian Financial LLP £288,962.53 for financial crime systems and controls failures. The firm’s failure to implement adequate measure put it at risk of being used to support fraudulent trading and...
Lords Committee writes to FCA on motor finance commission cases
The House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee has written to the FCA asking it to clarify certain elements of its position on the motor finance commission cases, as set out in a letter dated 13 November...
FCA executes search warrants in relation to unauthorised businesses
The FCA, in conjunction with the West Midlands Police, the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit and Police Scotland, has executed search warrants in two investigations involving unauthorised debt and claims management...
FCA issues Supervisory Notice to Hydrogard Legal Services
The FCA has published a First Supervisory Notice against Hydrogard Legal Services Limited, a firm with claims management permissions, requiring it to immediate cease carrying on all regulated activities other than with...
FCA asks Collateral investors to come forward for an apology
The FCA has apologised to people who invested in peer-to-peer firm Collateral, whose directors fraudulently changed the firm’s details on the FCA’s interim permission register to make it look like it had...
FCA charges former WealthTek partner
The FCA has brought criminal charges against John Dance, the principal partner at WealthTek LLP, in relation to 9 criminal offences, including multiple counts of fraud and money laundering. WealthTek, then known as...
FCA confirms pause on non-DCA complaints
The FCA has confirmed new temporary rules for handling motor finance non-DCA commission complaints, that broadly mirror those already in place for DCA commission related complaints. Firms will not have to provide a...
FOS updates on motor finance complaints
The FOS has updated its website to reflect the High Court judgment on DCAs that went in FOS’ favour. It says it is carefully considering what the judgment means for other similar cases in its current workload. The...
High Court backs FOS on DCA complaint
The High Court has dismissed all 3 grounds of appeal brought by a lender under a discretionary commission arrangement (DCA) for motor finance, following a FOS decision to uphold a customer complaint. The grounds of...
FCA successfully appeals Upper Tribunal decision
The Court of Appeal has allowed the FCA’s appeal against an Upper Tribunal decision which asked the regulator to reconsider a proposed ban against an individual and directed that a fine should not be imposed. In...
Employment cases update – December 2024
We are pleased to introduce into FIN a series of monthly updates from our employment team. This post looks at a few interesting cases. De Bank Haycocks v ADP RPO UK Ltd [2024] EWCA Civ 1291 The Court of Appeal had to...
FCA fines and bans a director and financial adviser for pension transfer advice
The FCA has banned and fined a director and financial adviser in relation to pension transfer advice failings. Richard Fenech was the sole director of Financial Solutions Midhurst Limited (FSML), responsible for...
BBRS Contemporary Scheme closes to new registrations
The BBRS’ Contemporary Scheme has closed to new registrations, as planned, at midnight on 13 December 2024. The BBRS will remain open to resolve complaints for customers that registered before the deadline. The...
FOS receives over 4,800 new cases from businesses
The FOS has received more than 4,800 new cases from small businesses this financial year. The most recent data covers the period from April – November 2024, and demonstrates that fraud and scams remain the most...
FOS updates on reports involving Consumer Duty
The FOS has published information on how the Consumer Duty relates to the complaints it looks at. It notes that the CD is not relevant to all complaints but may be a relevant consideration in complaints about things...
Supreme Court grants permission to appeal in motor finance cases
The Supreme Court has granted Close Brothers and FirstRand Bank permission to appeal in the cases of Johnson v FirstRand Bank t/a Motonovo Finance, Wrench v FirstRand and Hopcraft v Close Brothers. The cases all relate...
FOS consults on 2025/26 plans and budget
The FOS is consulting on its proposed plans and budget for 2025/26. The FOS noted that due to the uncertainty around motor finance commission cases, and the wider regulatory review of the redress framework, its plans...
FOS publishes Independent Assessor’s annual report for 2023/24
The FOS has published the Independent Assessor’s report for the financial year 2023/24. During this period, the FOS resolved 192,077 cases, with 1.8% of those customers lodging complaints about the service. Of the...
Lords Committee publishes FCA enforcement position letter
The House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee has published a letter from Nikhil Rathi answering some questions the Committee has asked following the FCA’s appearance before them. The letter mainly...
FCA writes to Supreme Court on motor finance
The FCA has written to the Supreme Court supporting the application of the lenders in the Hopcraft, Wrench and Johnson motor finance commission cases for expedition of the court’s decision on the application to...
FCA fines and bans another pensions adviser
The FCA has fined Philip Pryke nearly £1.4m and banned him for failings as a director, compliance officer and adviser at C&I, in relation to defined benefit pension scheme transfer advice during a 4 year period...
FCA scales back enforcement proposals – but still wants to go ahead
The FCA has published a second consultation paper on its proposals for increasing transparency in its enforcement process. It has gone ahead with the consultation partly to help the ongoing parliamentary scrutiny of its...
FOS notes huge increase in complaints
The latest figures from the FOS show complaints have increased by over 50%, with record increases in complaints about frauds and scams, current accounts and credit cards. The FOS also noted in particular an increasing...
FCA fines former Wizz Air executive for closed period trades and disclosure failures
The FCA has fined the former chief supply chain officer at Wizz Air Holdings plc £123,500 for trading company shares when he was not permitted to, and failing to disclose those trades. Between April 2019 and November...
FCA fines Macquarie Bank £13m for fictitious trades control failings
The FCA has fined Macquarie Bank Limited – London Branch £13m for serious control failures that allowed an employee to record over 400 fictitious trades. From June 2020 to February 2022, Travis Klein – based...
FCA finalises 2022 decision notices on Barclays
The FCA has published the final notices against Barclays plc and Barclays Bank plc in relation to the bank’s failure to disclose certain arrangements with Qatari entities in 2008. The FCA had decided to impose a...
FCA updates whistleblowing data
The latest whistleblowing data from the FCA, covering the quarter ending September 2024 shows: 322 new reports received (up from 253 in Q2 and 280 in the corresponding period last year), with nearly half of reports...
FOS confirms decision to introduce CMC fees
The FOS has published a letter, dated 8 October 2024, from its Chair, Baroness Manzoor CBE, to FCA Chair, Ashley Alder, confirming its board’s decision to introduce a fee for certain claims management companies...
Tribunal disagrees with FCA on fine amount
The FCA had found Arian Financial LLP had breached Principles 2 and 3 in respect of failings in its financial crime prevention systems and controls in relation to business introduced by the now infamous “Solo...
FCA charges failed credit union directors with fraud
The FCA has brought charges against 3 former directors of the Dial-A-Cab Credit Union, now in administration. It alleges that committed the offence of fraud by abuse of position by transferring funds out of the credit...
FCA consults on wider extension to motor finance commission complaints handling
The FCA is consulting as promised on extending the time firms have to respond to motor finance complaints involving non-discretionary commissions. The FCA notes that firms are likely to receive high levels of complaints...
Committee publishes FCA enforcement interview evidence
The House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee has published the oral evidence from its session on 13 November in which it interviewed Ashley Alder and Nikhil Rathi about the FCA’s enforcement...
FCA bans director after GBH conviction
The FCA has banned Ari Harris, the sole director of Reeds Motors Ltd, after he was convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm without intent and deliberately failed to notify the FCA. He had been convicted in 2020 and...
Tribunal agrees with FCA decisions to ban but queries disgorgement calculation
The Upper Tribunal has backed the FCA’s decision to fine and ban Toni Fox-Bryant and David Price after discovering failings in their firm (CFP Management Limited) in relation to pension transfer business. The FCA...
FCA fines and bans individuals for reckless breach of requirements
The FCA has fined and banned two former partners of MedDen Financial Services LLP for recklessly withdrawing funds from their firm’s bank account for their own purposes the day after the FCA had imposed an asset...
FCA reacts to Mansion House speech
The FCA has reacted to several announcements from the Mansion House speech. It has reiterated that it is committed to supporting growth and says it has fully embraced its secondary international competitiveness and...
FCA and FOS seek views on modernising the Redress System
The FCA and the FOS have released a Call for Input that seeks to modernise the current redress framework, which the regulators say works well for individual customer complaints but does not deal so well with cases where...
Mansion House speech heralds 5 priority growth areas
The Chancellor’s first Mansion House speech stressed the importance of the financial services industry to the UK and highlighted 5 priority growth opportunities on which the Government will focus its strategy:...
FCA holds call with market analysts on motor commission cases
The FCA held a call with market analysts just before it published its consultation on its proposal to expand the pause on dealing with complaints about commissions in the motor finance sector. Key points included: the...
FCA to consult on time extension for non-discretionary motor finance commission complaints
Following the Court of Appeal’s decision to allow appeals to the Supreme Court in relation to three cases of non-disclosure of non-discretionary commission for motor finance (we covered this in FIN here), the FCA...
FCA fines Metro Bank £16m for financial crime control failings
The FCA has fined Metro Bank PLC £16,675,200 for failures relating to the systems and controls it had in place to monitor transactions for money laundering risks. The period concerned spanned from June 2016 to December...
Treasury publishes draft Designated Activities supervision regulations
The Treasury has published draft Regulations to give the FCA supervisory and enforcement powers over certain activities which are to become Designated Activities for the purposes of FSMA following the changes introduced...
FCA improves enforcement disclosure processes
The FCA has completed its review of its disclosure processes in enforcement cases following a recommendation from the Upper Tribunal. The FCA is required to disclose all documents it relies on to build its case and any...
Insurance broker fined and banned for misuse of insurer funds
The FCA has fined the sole manager of Inspire Insurance Services Ltd over £1.1m and banned him from the financial services industry. Leigh Mackey had sole management control of the construction sector insurance broker...
FCA convicts individuals for £1.5m investment fraud
The FCA has secured convictions against two individuals in relation to a £1.5m investment fraud. Between February 2017 and June 2019, Raymondip Bedi and Patrick Mavanga defrauded at least 65 investors by cold calling...
FCA begins criminal proceedings against individuals and firms for unauthorised business
The FCA has begun criminal proceedings against Anthony Hay, Laura Hay, Tim Stewart, Premier Finance GB Ltd and Proserv GBR Limited, for allegedly engaging in authorised business. The individuals are jointly charged in...
Lords Committee publishes enforcement proposal views
The House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee, which took over from its predecessor in gathering evidence on the FCA’s controversial enforcement proposals has published several pieces of written...
FCA fines Wise CEO for failing to notify tax issues
The FCA has fined Kristo Käärmann, CEO of Wise plc and SMF1 and SMF3 of Wise Assets UK, after he failed to consider the significance of tax issues and did not notify the FCA of them. Mr Käärmann had been fined over...
FOS warns on lack of understanding of s75
The FOS has said that failing to understand the rules around claims under s75 CCA can affect consumers’ chances of getting their money back. Its guidance debunks several myths: that s75 only helps if the purchase...
Latest complaints figures show huge rise
The FOS has published the complaints figures for the first half of 2024. The figures show a rise of over 40% compared to the same period last year, with over 130,000 complaints being received. The increases, and year on...
FCA restricts ISA Manager business over platform failings
The FCA has placed restrictions on Business Agent Limited in respect of failings related to its “Nextcrowd” platform. As a result the form can no longer act as an ISA manager. The FCA’s concerns...
FCA targets illegal finfluencers
The FCA is interviewing 20 “finfluencers” under caution in a targeted action against social media account holders which may be promoting financial services products illegally. It has also issued 38 alerts...
FCA speaks on growth and enforcement proposals
Nikhil Rathi, FCA Chief Executive, delivered a speech on growth at the Annual City Banquet. His speech highlighted the FCA’s literature review on links between financial regulation and growth and that it will...
PSR publishes policy statements confirming APP scams reimbursement limit
Following its recent announcement confirming that it is reducing the maximum level that PSPs will have to reimburse APP scam victims to £85,000 per claim, the PSR has published two policy statements setting out details...
Court of Appeal confirms acceptance of PPI commission redress validly compromised claims
The claimants brought separate claims against Skipton Building Society and Santander Cards UK Limited, alleging that their respective relationships under credit agreements held with each firm were unfair on the basis...
FCA succeeds in BlueCrest redress scheme appeal
Following an Upper Tribunal decision in June 2023 which upheld an application by BlueCrest Capital Management (UK) LLP to summarily strike out a redress requirement imposed by the FCA for its purported breaches of...
FCA fines Starling Bank £29m for financial crime control failings
The FCA has fined Starling Bank Limited approximately £29m for financial crime failings related to its financial sanctions screening process, and for repeatedly breaching a requirement not to open accounts for high-risk...
FCA confirms forbearance in relation to investment trust disclosure requirements
Following the Treasury’s announcement that it would be excluding certain investment trusts from the PRIIPs Regulation and other EU-assimilated law, the FCA has confirmed it will be applying new regulatory...
PSR confirms £85,000 reimbursement limit
The PSR has confirmed that the maximum reimbursement limit for APP scam victims will be £85,000 from 7 October. The BoE has followed suit in relation to CHAPS payments.
FCA speaks on enforcement approach
Therese 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...
FCA confirms motor finance complaint handling pause extension
The FCA has confirmed that the pause to the deadline for motor finance firms to provide a final response to customer complaints about discretionary commission arrangements will now last until 4 December 2025. As...
FOS calls for better approach to debt management
Abby Thomas, chief Ombudsman at the FOS, says the FOS is seeing increasing complaints about unaffordable lending. She said many customers are finding it hard to communicate with businesses when they are becoming over...
Court rejects COBS contravention claim against spread betting firm
The High Court rejected the arguments of a defendant who alleged that a claimant spread betting firm had contravened COBS by reclassifying him from a retail client to an elective professional client (EPC), meaning he no...
FCA brings charges for illegal crypto ATM network
The FCA has charged Olumide Osunkoya with unlawfully running multiple crypto ATMs without registration under the MLRs. The ATMs in question processed £2.6m in crypto transactions during a period of just under 2 years...
FCA takes action for reckless pension transfer model
The FCA has published decisions against 3 individuals and fined and banned a fourth in relation to a pension transfer advice model that the FCA consider put guaranteed retirement benefits at risk. Its action relates to...
FCA bans individual after criminal conviction
The FCA has banned an individual from performing regulated activities after he was convicted of involvement in a criminal conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation. Luke Williams was involved in the activities...
FCA publishes Annual Report
The FCA Annual Report and Accounts shows how the FCA has improved its operating statistics for authorisations over the past year. It now meets its statutory deadlines for determining applications in 98% of cases. Other...
Tribunal backs FCA refusal of authorisation application on fit and proper grounds
The Upper Tribunal made its decision on the reference to it in respect of the FCA’s decision that the only proposed financial adviser of a firm did not meet the ‘fit and proper’ test, such that the...
FCA releases latest skilled persons stats
In the quarter to end March 2024, the FCA commissioned 27 skilled persons reports. 10 related to retail investments, 7 to wholesale financial markets and 5 to retail banking and payments. 12 related to controls and risk...
CMA writes to Starling on Retail Banking Order breach
The CMA has written a letter to Starling regarding its breach of the Retail Banking Market Investigation Order (Order) in relation to the Service Quality Indicator (SQI) remedy. Part 3 of the Order requires Business...
Force majeure and “reasonable endeavours”
Read our article on the recent Supreme Court findings on what “reasonable endeavours” should mean in the context of force majeure clauses.
FOS publishes quarterly data
FOS has published complaints data covering Q1 2024/5 (April – June 2024). Highlights include: over 76,000 new complaints – an increase of 70% from the same period last year; credit cards were the most...
Tribunal backs FCA on Saranac/Kalaris decision
The Upper Tribunal has made its decision on the reference to it by Saranac Partners Limited in respect of the FCA’s decision not to approve its application for Thomas Kalaris to be its CEO and an executive...
FCA fines auditor for failing to report suspected fraud
The FCA has fined PwC £15m for failing to report suspicions of fraud that arose during its 2016 audit into London Capital & Finance. As PwC had been carrying out the audit, it had been faced with aggression from a...
FCA fines and bans individual for dishonest and reckless conduct
The FCA has banned Martin Sarl from working in the financial services industry for acting without honesty and integrity. The regulator has also fined Mr Sarl £5,021. The FCA’s investigation found that between...
FCA fines CFD firm for unfair customer treatment
The FCA has fined Forex TB Limited (FXTB), a Cypriot contract for differences (CFD) firm, £276,100 for failing to treat its customers fairly and for providing investment advice without authorisation. The FCA found that...
Asset manager to pay €250m to investors in high risk investments
The FCA has announced that H2O AM LLP is to pay €250m to investors who have been unable to access their funds for 4 years after the firm failed to carry out proper due diligence on certain introduced investments...
Unauthorised mortgage broker to pay £4m
The FCA has secured an order of £4m in the High Court against two firms under the directorship of one individual, which respectively arranged mortgages and bought properties and rented them back to the sellers. Neither...
FSR Committee restarts and reopens inquiries
The House of Lords has reappointed the Financial Services Regulation Committee which had originally been created in 2024. The reappointed Committee will now continue the inquiries that were ongoing before the election...
PSR publishes APP scams performance report
The PSR has published the APP scams performance report for 2023. Highlights from the report show: over 250,000 reports were made in 2023, with scams totalling over £340m; reimbursement rates have increased while fraud...
The challenges facing low-value data breach claims
We have written an article on the case of Farley v Paymaster, which looks at how the courts are increasingly viewing exaggerated data breach claims brought for alleged distress.
FCA to extend DCA complaint “pause” period
The FCA plans to extend the “pause” to the time firms have to respond to complaints about motor finance involving discretionary commission arrangements., to 4 December 2025. It says it has taken longer than...
Regulators update on BSPS actions
The FCA, FOS and FSCS have published a report looking at the actions taken and results from the BSPS Redress Scheme exercise, as it comes to an end. Overall: £8.7m has been paid out by firms or the FSCS (significantly...
FOS publishes ADR annual activity report
The FOS has published the annual figures for reports it received in the year to 8 July, It notes the figures don’t include complaints brought by businesses but may include some brought by charities and trustees...
FCA updates whistleblowing data
The latest whistleblowing data from the FCA, covering the quarter to end June 2024, shows: 253 new reports received (fewer than the corresponding period last year and the last quarter), with nearly half of reports made...
King’s Speech 2024 outlines pensions and banking resolution measures
Among the list of legislative proposals referred to in the King’s Speech are bills designed to strengthen pension investment and enhance the UK’s banking resolution regime. The Pension Schemes Bill aims to...
Travel insurance complaints at highest level since Covid
The FOS has announced that it received 4,466 complaints about travel insurance in the financial year 2023/24, a 19% increase on the previous year. The only time that figure has been higher in the last 10 years was when...
FCA bans individual knowingly concerned in FSMA breach
The FCA has published a final notice banning Clive Harris Mongelard from performing regulated activities. Following civil proceedings in the High Court, Mr Mongelard was found to be knowingly concerned in multiple...
FOS publishes annual complaints data for 2023/24
FOS has published the annual complaints data for the 2023/24 financial year. Most notably, complaints about the banking sector are at their highest level in at least a decade. In the last financial year, consumers...
FCA bans individuals for mistreatment of customer funds
The FCA has taken action against 3 individuals who were involved in running SVS Securities Plc, a discretionary fund manager. SVS used a complex business model intended to maximise the flow of customer funds into high...
Individual takes action against Revolut for APP fraud
Mr Larsson brought claims against Revolut, following payments it accepted that resulted from an APP fraud on Mr Larsson. Mr Larsson was a Revolut customer, but the payments in question were made by him from his account...
Court rejects application for JR review of FOS decision
The Court has dismissed an application made by Linear Investments Limited for judicial review of a FOS decision. The FOS had heard that a customer of Linear (Professor W) was an eligible complainant under its rules...