The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published the latest data on financial promotions.
The data was generated between 1 April 2024 and 30 June 2024 from FCA actions against firms breaching financial promotion rules.
The interventions by the FCA in the second quarter of 2024 resulted in 3,273 promotions being amended or withdrawn by authorised firms.
The retail investments and retail lending sectors had the highest amend/withdraw outcomes, totalling 89% of FCA interventions with authorised firms.
Some of the most common breaches involved claims management companies, credit broker firms, and contract for difference (CFDs) providers.
In the second quarter of 2024, the FCA received 5,544 reports about potential unauthorised business.
The regulator issued 528 alerts about unauthorised firms and individuals. Some 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.
