Regulatory News: FCA Annual Report - Bishopsgate Insurance

The FCA has published its annual report, which includes its recent enforcement activities for the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.

Some of the key takeaways from the enforcement data include:

591 open enforcement cases relating to 224 investigations (compared to 603 open cases the previous year). Of these 591 cases, 236 were regulatory, 162 were criminal, 138 were ‘dual track’ and 55 were civil.
The FCA investigated more individuals than firms (385 individuals and 206 firms).
The main issues being investigated included unauthorised business, insider dealing, wholesale conduct, retail conduct and pensions advice.
The FCA appears to be increasingly focussing on financial crime in the context of its unauthorised business cases.
The length of time it is taking to complete investigations has increased. The average time taken to complete the regulatory ‘investigation stage’ was 40 months (for cases closed last year) – up from 25 months in 2020/21. Regulatory cases that went beyond the investigation stage took a further 24 months to conclude (on average). Therefore, in cases where the FCA chose to pursue enforcement action, the average time to completion was a full five years and four months.