FCA Yearly Review: Commentary and Insights
Financial Conduct Authority Publishes 2024/25 Annual Report
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has released its annual report for 2024/25, detailing the organisation's efforts to combat financial crime, protect consumers, and ensure market integrity.
In the report, the FCA highlights its data-led regulatory approach, utilising advanced tools to detect harm early and act swiftly. The authority collected and analysed 1,131 new whistleblower reports and 2,684 allegations in 2024/25, which helped identify risks related to compliance failures, fraud, unauthorised business, and other misconduct, enabling timely interventions.
One of the key highlights of the report is the FCA's crackdown on unauthorised financial services online. Over 1,600 websites suspected of promoting financial services without permission were suspended, removed, or blocked during 2024. The FCA also collaborated with big tech platforms, resulting in over 50 apps being removed from Google Play and the App Store.
Enforcement actions have been significant. The FCA banned individuals from working in financial services, issued hefty fines exceeding £186 million for serious failings, handed out prison sentences for insider dealing, fraud, and money laundering, and cancelled the authorizations of over 1,456 firms. This is a 20% increase compared to 2023 and more than triple the number from 2021.
The report also mentions the FCA's intervention to ensure almost 20,000 non-compliant financial promotions were amended or withdrawn by authorized firms in 2024. Additionally, the FCA took action to protect social media users from illegal financial promotions by unauthorized 'finfluencers'.
In terms of supervisory powers, the FCA's use of voluntary requirements has increased by 18%. The number of open enforcement operations by the FCA has dropped to 130 from 188.
The FCA's Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21, the most recent report published by the FCA, detailed allegations against James Lewis, the former CEO of Shard Capital Partners, who was fined £120,300 and banned by the FCA for providing incorrect information about clients' cash.
The FCA has not previously been mentioned as collaborating with the Lloyd's Market Association in any of the earlier reports. The LMA welcomed the publication of the FCA's non-financial misconduct survey, but no specific type of misconduct was mentioned in the LMA's response.
The number of new enforcement operations opened in 2024/25 has decreased from 25 to 23. The FCA received a total of 2,754 separate allegations of misconduct, including fraud, money laundering, and compliance complaints, according to official figures.
In conclusion, the FCA's 2024/25 Annual Report portrays a strategic, tech-enabled effort to reduce financial crime and consumer harm by leveraging data analytics, whistleblowing intelligence, and digital enforcement tools.
- The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) utilized its data-led regulatory approach in 2024/25, collecting and analyzing 1,131 new whistleblower reports and 2,684 allegations, which helped identify risks related to compliance failures, fraud, unauthorized business, and other misconduct within the finance, business, and banking-and-insurance industry.
- Enforcement actions by the FCA were significant in 2024/25, with the authority banning individuals from working in financial services, issuing fines exceeding £186 million for serious failings, handing out prison sentences for insider dealing, fraud, and money laundering, and canceling the authorizations of over 1,456 firms.
- The FCA collaborated with big tech platforms in 2024, resulting in over 50 apps being removed from Google Play and the App Store, and over 1,600 websites suspected of promoting financial services without permission were suspended, removed, or blocked.
