FCA cracks down on illegal promotions and market abuse in first year of new strategy

The FCA has focused its efforts on the most serious risks and harms. It has taken decisive action to protect consumers, fight financial crime and uphold market integrity, delivering an estimated £5.6bn in benefits to consumers, firms and the wider economy.

Helping consumers

The FCA significantly strengthened consumer protection through the launch of Firm Checker, a tool that helps consumers quickly check whether a firm is authorised and avoid dealing with fraudulent firms. It’s estimated that the tool has been used over 1.9 million times since its introduction in January 2025. Following a successful advertising campaign at the start of 2026, firm warning messages helped protect an average of 694 consumers each week – an increase of 49%.

Over the past year, the FCA also:

• Delivered estimated savings of around £157m a year for consumers paying monthly insurance premiums, using Consumer Duty fair-value rules.
• The FCA began major mortgage reforms. After clarifying affordability checks, most lenders updated their approach, meaning borrowers could access up to £30,000 more.
• Confirmed final rules to support more consumers in making pensions and investment decisions with at least 18 million consumers expected to benefit over the next decade.
• Issued final rules for Buy Now Pay Later products, introducing clear consumer protections ahead of the regime coming into force in July 2026.

Ashley Alder, chair of the FCA, said: 'We have made a strong start to our 5-year strategy. We set out to focus our efforts where they matter most – protecting consumers, maintaining market integrity and supporting a competitive economy. The progress we’ve made in the first year demonstrates that a focused and decisive regulator delivers real benefits for consumers and supports growth.'

Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the FCA, said: 'In the past year we've shut down scams, pursued those who abuse markets through the courts, helped hundreds of thousands of consumers access better financial products and cut the cost of regulation for tens of thousands of firms. We've made greater use of data and technology to detect harm earlier and expanded our international presence to support UK financial services. There is more to do, but this is a solid foundation.'

Fighting financial crime

With investment fraud remaining a major threat, the FCA issued 2,329 warnings about unauthorised or potentially scam firms in 2025, up from 2,240 in 2024, and pursued serious market abuse through both enforcement and criminal prosecution. 17 criminal convictions were secured, including for fraud, insider dealing, money laundering and DPA offences. Two individuals received a combined 11 years' imprisonment for insider dealing and money laundering, while 12 individuals were fined a total of £1.77m for market abuse offences.

A coordinated 'week of action' on finfluencers, involving 9 international regulators in June 2025, resulted in 3 arrests, 6 criminal proceedings, 11 targeted warning or cease-and-desist letters, 50 warning list alerts and 650 social media takedown requests.

The FCA also fined firms approximately £14.4m for transaction reporting failures and control weaknesses and issued a £42m fine to Barclays for anti-money laundering failures.

The number of customers removed as money mules rose by 4.4% compared to last year, reaching 222,173 across 35 firms, reflecting both the growing scale of the risk and action taken by firms.

Supporting growth

The FCA delivered nearly 50 pro-growth measures in 2025, supporting the UK’s competitiveness, attracting international investment and reinforcing its position as a leader in financial services innovation. It received 132 applications to its AI Supercharged Regulatory Sandbox and launched a scale-up unit, alongside the PRA, to help firms scale sustainably.

It approved 2 firms to operate under a new private markets framework (PISCES), designed to support trading in private company shares, with 2 more firms in the pipeline. The FCA also expanded its international presence through new offices in the US, Asia-Pacific and Singapore.

Smarter regulator

The FCA launched a single digital entry point for regulated firms to manage regulatory tasks, with 81% reported user satisfaction and fewer late returns. It also decommissioned outdated reporting returns across more than 90% of regulated firms, delivering a further £16m annual saving in reporting costs. The regulator also replaced 43 portfolio letters with 9 focused market reports setting out clear regulatory priorities for each sector.

AI automation has reduced the time it takes to handle simpler cases from up to 4 hours to about 6 minutes on average, allowing supervisors to focus on more important work.

Notes to editors

• Today, the FCA has published:
  • Our Annual report and accounts 2025/26
  • Outcomes and metrics: 2025/26 report 
  • Secondary International Competitiveness and Growth Objective metrics 2025/26
  • Use of our skilled person reports in 2025/26
  • Operating service metrics 2025/26
  • Response to the Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) Panel's Annual Report 2024/25
  • Prescribed Persons Annual Report 2025/26
  • Pay review 2026: Equality Impact Assessment
  • Pay gap data 2026
• On 6 October 2026 the FCA is hosting its Annual Public Meeting in Edinburgh and online. Register to attend.