Please find the original FCA publication here.
This page gives a summary of data generated between 1 January 2023 and 31 March 2023 from our actions against firms breaching financial promotion rules, and referrals and investigations into unregulated activity.
his data provides an overview of how we are working to improve standards across the market so that consumers are provided with clear and fair financial promotions which are not misleading.
What’s included in the data
- Key messages
- Authorised firms
- number of financial promotions reviewed during this period
- number of closed cases where promotions have been amended and withdrawn, including split across sectors, excluding cases which are still ongoing
- Unauthorised firms
- number of unauthorised reports received, and alerts issued
- Examples of our work on financial promotions during 2023 Q1:
- reducing and preventing serious harm
- setting and testing higher standards
- promoting competition and positive change
- Information on how to report a misleading financial advert or potential scam
Key messages
- Our interventions in 2023 Q1 resulted in 2235 promotions being amended/withdrawn by authorised firms.
- We issued 611 alerts on unauthorised firms and individuals, with 12% of these about clone scams.
- Given the rising cost of living we did some work focussed on unauthorised and authorised firms who offered debt advice which resulted in 9 alerts being issued, and we imposed voluntary requirements (VREQs) on 2 firms.
- We took action against a firm using a trading name which could potentially mislead consumers that the firm was a not-for-profit organisation or part of a government scheme. Firms should not use misleading trading names.
- We reviewed the marketing and promotion of Speculative Illiquid Securities (SIS), including mini-bonds where we found that some investments are being ‘rolled over’. Some investors were also being wrongly categorised as high net worth or sophisticated.
To view the full FCA publication, please follow the link here.
