Financial fraud in the UK on the rise, the FCA decides to employ 1,000 more officers

The UK’s financial regulator, the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) recently published a summary of its regulatory actions taken throughout the year. According to the regulator, it has developed a three-year strategy, which was necessary due to a rise in cases of financial fraud in the country.

This led to an increase in the number of enforcement actions, but it lacked the personnel needed to tackle the rising threat. In order to prepare, the FCA decided to rise to the challenge by employing 1,000 new officers.

Fraud in the UK on the rise

The FCA stepped up its efforts to prevent financial fraud or stop it when it identified ongoing operations. One aspect of this revolved around removing, or at least changing, misleading advertisements. According to the regulator, in 2022 alone, it had to intervene 8,000 times in order to do this. It also revoked the licenses previously granted to over 200 companies that did not meet the country’s regulatory standards.

On top of that, the regulator published 1,800 warnings of potential platforms attempting to defraud investors and traders. All of these figures are much higher compared to those seen in 2021 and years before, which is why the regulator had to employ new personnel in order to deal with the growing amount of fraud.

Throughout the year, the FCA was successful in recovering around 30 million ponds that were stolen from investors due to fraud, and its assessment is that it also prevented the loss of another 7 million GBP.

Its Chief Executive, Nikhil Rathi, stated that this has been a difficult year for a lot of people who were struggling with the cost of living. As a result, it is that much more important that financial firms continue to abide by the standing laws, regulations, and standards. It is imperative to ensure that they will treat their investors and traders fairly, especially because so many of them are experiencing financial difficulties due to the state of the global economy.

The FCA has taken a number of steps to end fraudulent activity

Since the FCA needs to keep a watchful eye on all of the firms operating within the UK’s borders, it opened a new office in Leeds, and it stepped up its efforts to expand in Edinburgh, as well. Its statement says that these steps were vital to improve the statistics in 2022 and continue its work on reforms that would support competitiveness and security in the financial markets of the UK.

Previous steps to try and handle the growing number of fraudulent cases included a warning published in May 2022, when the regulator advised investors to stay away from cryptocurrencies. It also attempted to prevent inappropriate promotions of digital assets commonly encountered on social media.

Despite this, there were still many cases of misleading or even openly fraudulent and illegal marketing activities. On top of that, there were a number of poor practices among CFD brokers, who needed to be reminded that CFDs are considered high-risk assets.