The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has written to people who complained about how the regulator handled Wellesley & Co Ltd (WCL).

Complainants raised concerns about FCA’s actions in relation to the wider Wellesley Group. WCL was the only FCA-regulated company in the Group and was responsible for approving financial promotions marketed to investors.

The FCA stated:

“We carefully reviewed all the complaints that were made and upheld one about how part of WCL’s authorisation process was handled at the time. However, we found this did not cause investors’ losses. Those losses resulted from the failure of unregulated companies within the Wellesley Group, not from how WCL was authorised. We have not found that WCL should not have been authorised.

We are sorry that complainants suffered financial loss and have a great deal of sympathy for their situation.

We have apologised to complainants for the failing identified. A decision letter has been issued to complainants today”.

The regulator announced the investigation into WCL in 2022 following Wellesley Finance Ltd (WFL), an unregulated entity, entering into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) with its creditors in October 2020.

At the time of WFL’s CVA, around 12,000 investors were owed £134.7 million. About £80 million has been returned to investors but, unfortunately, some investors have lost all that they invested.

The investigation’s focus was whether investors had been given misleading information and defrauded by WCL. It found that the risks were fairly described to investors and there were no signs of fraud.

WCL promoted and arranged high-risk investments that related to property development. These products were not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

WCL was responsible for approving financial promotions used to market certain products to investors. There were other unregulated companies within the Wellesley Group.

The amounts returned to investors under the CVA varied according to the products held. While around 60% of the money invested has been returned, investors who received preference shares as part of the CVA lost all the money they invested. This accounts for about £10 million of the total money owed to investors.

On 30 April 2025, WCL entered administration.

The FCA launched an investigation into WCL, the only authorised entity in the Wellesley Group of companies, after concerns emerged through FCA’s supervision of the firm.

In September 2025, the FCA announced it would take no further action against Wellesley & Co Limited (WCL) after its investigation found no evidence of serious misconduct.