Information on furlough fraud - November 2022

Our searches revealed 47 contacts about furlough fraud.

Our searches revealed 10 contacts about furlough fraud regarding financial advice firms.

We should explain here that this figure relates to firms whose main business models mean we classify them as ‘Advisers & Intermediates’. The figure including reports relating to firms that provide wider types of financial advice is likely to be higher, due to the fact that some firms that can provide certain type of advice are not pure financial advisers, e.g. banks (and so are not classified as ‘Advisers & Intermediates’).

We do not hold readily available information on this, because there is no overarching category for a pure broker firm. Such business models are found across multiple sectors, e.g. credit brokers, mortgage brokers and insurance brokers. The amount of analysis and reconciliation needed to retrieve this data would be equivalent to creating new information, which we are not required to do under FOIA.

We do not hold information responding to these parts of your request, as the furlough scheme was not overseen or administered by the FCA, but by HMRC. Where appropriate, the FCA has shared with HMRC information, or asked the enquirer to report to HMRC themselves. It would be for HMRC to decide on any appropriate action.

That said, the FCA asked lenders to report to us cases of FCA authorised firms who were suspected of committing furlough fraud. In common with their wider activities, where evidence of serious misconduct is identified at regulated firms or by authorised individuals, the FCA assesses whether it is appropriate to undertake an enforcement investigation.