FCA amends/withdraws 1,507 promotions in Q2 2023
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published its latest financial promotions data. It covers the period between 1 April 2023 and 30 June 2023.
In the second quarter of 2023, the FCA reviewed 301 financial promotions from multiple sources. Following FCA intervention, in Q2 a total of 1,507 promotions were amended/withdrawn.
Retail investments and retail lending are the sectors with the highest amend/withdraw outcomes, totalling 70% of FCA interventions with authorised firms.
Some of the most common breaches involved debt advice firms and peer 2 peer lending platform firms.
In the second quarter of 2023, the FCA received 6,387 reports about potential unauthorised business.
The regulator issued 400 alerts about unauthorised firms and individuals. 11% of these related to clone scams, which is where fraudsters use details such as the name and address of authorised firms and individuals, and a ‘firm registration number’ (FRN) to suggest they are genuine. Many of these involved breaches of the financial promotion restriction online. In almost all cases the FCA asked for the websites to be taken down.
On 31 July, the new Consumer Duty came into force for new and existing products and services that are open for sale or renewal. The Duty is a significant shift in FCA’s expectations; setting higher standards for financial services customers with a new Consumer Principle that requires firms to act and deliver good outcomes for retail customers.
The FCA rules require firms to consider the needs, characteristics, and objectives of their customers – including those with characteristics of vulnerability – and how they behave, at every stage of the customer journey. This will enable the regulator to continue raising industry standards.