The FCA said that, together with the City of London Police, it conducted an operation in London and Oxfordshire on 20 March, which led to four individuals being arrested for suspected fraud and money laundering offences.
In a press release, the regulator said: “All suspects were interviewed under caution by the FCA and released on bail. The FCA’s investigation into the case is ongoing.”
According to Steve Smart, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight: “The FCA is committed to rooting out fraud and money laundering which undermine trust in our financial services.
“Fighting financial crime is a key priority for the FCA’s new strategy and joint working like this ensures that we can act swiftly to protect consumers,” he added.
Regulation
In a major announcement last week in regards to the future of financial regulation in the UK, the FCA launched “a new 5-year strategy to deepen trust, rebalance risk, support growth and improve lives.”
The watchdog said, moving forward, it will focus on four priorities, including:
- Be a smarter regulator; predictable, purposeful and proportionate. The FCA will improve its processes and embrace technology to become more efficient and effective.
- Support sustained economic growth, by enabling investment, innovation and ensuring the continued competitiveness of the UK’s world-leading financial services.
- Help consumers navigate their financial lives by working with industry to boost trust, product innovation and ensuring the right information and support is available for people to take financial decisions.
- Fight financial crime, focusing on those who seek to use the fact they are regulated to do harm. It will go further to disrupt criminals and support firms to be an effective line of defence.
Read the full story on the details of the new strategy.
Also last week, the FCA outlined proposals to review its expectations for mortgages and lending, and to explore how it can simplify communications about savings accounts.
The regulator has said: “The proposals are part of our work to streamline our rules, reduce burdens on businesses, and improve outcomes for consumers following the introduction of the Consumer Duty.”
The FCA’s plans include:
- making it easier to navigate regulations for consumer finance, investment and mortgages firms by planning to retire more than 100 pages of outdated guidance;
- withdrawing hundreds of supervisory publications;
- reviewing current prescriptive disclosure rules to give firms more flexibility to tailor communications to customers’ needs and preferences, such as online and digital transactions;
- revisiting rules for businesses with customers outside the UK, for example looking at whether insurance firms need to apply UK rules for their overseas customers.
The FCA has announced the launch of a new portal making reporting easier. It became active on 31 March 2025.
According to the regulator, “firms can access My FCA as a single point of sign in for regulatory reporting tasks including submitting regulatory data and paying fees.”
“My FCA will make it easier to fulfil regulatory responsibilities while improving user experience,” the press release adds.
Jessica Rusu, the FCA’s chief data, intelligence and information officer, said: “We’re committed to being a smarter regulator under our new strategy. Central to that is us being easier to engage with.”
Speeches
Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the FCA, delivered a speech at the JP Morgan Pensions and Savings Symposium 2025 on 28 March 2025.
Highlights included:
- At a time when increasing pensions contributions substantially is out of the question or insufficient for many, we must focus instead on how to improve outcomes through better returns, risk alignment and support.
- This will require open, collaborative and forward-looking conversations about trade-offs, and we should be willing to think boldly and holistically across retail markets.
- The FCA is working with partners across the system on initiatives such as Targeted Support and pensions dashboards, to drive better consumer outcomes at scale and encourage a shift in focus from cost to long-term value.
- Improving pension outcomes will also support innovation, infrastructure and economic growth by unlocking capital for long-term, productive investments.