Enforcement
The FCA has announced that it has charged John Dance with 9 criminal offences, including multiple counts of fraud and money laundering.
John Dance was principal partner at WealthTek LLP (formerly known as Vertus Asset Management LLP (Vertus)), a wealth management firm, according to the regulator and “is accused of fraudulently abusing his position of trust at Vertus and WealthTek for his own personal gain.”
“Between 2014 and 2023, Mr Dance transferred over £64m from client accounts of Vertus and WealthTek to accounts he controlled, which the FCA alleges he used to fund a lavish lifestyle and other business interests including horseracing and a nightclub.”
Mr Dance is also charged with 3 further offences of dishonestly making false representations about WealthTek’s regulatory permissions to facilitate and prolong his alleged fraud.
The FCA said last week it had “decided to ban Mr Richard Fenech and Ms Heather Dunne from working in financial services and fine them £270,646 and £399,817 respectively.”
“The FCA found that the pair operated a flawed advice model that put customers’ guaranteed pension benefits at significant risk, and that Ms Dunne failed to act with due skill, care and diligence when providing pension transfer advice,” the regulator said in a statement.
“Mr Fenech was the sole director of Financial Solutions Midhurst Limited (FSML) and responsible for overseeing Ms Dunne, who was FSML’s appointed representative (trading as HDIFA).”
“FSML has been dissolved and HDIFA has stopped trading. To date, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has paid over £770,490 in compensation to FSML clients, (with potential total losses estimated at nearly £2m) because of losses suffered by those clients following advice they received.”
Mr Richard Fenech and Ms Heather Dunne have each referred their Decision Notice to the Upper Tribunal.
Also last week, the FCA said it had successfully appealed the Upper Tribunal decision in Mr Markos Markou vs FCA.
A statement in this regard says, “We welcome the Court of Appeal’s judgment which found that our decision to ban Mr Markou from financial services was the correct one. The Court of Appeal also determined that it was appropriate to fine Mr Markou £10,000.”
In 2021 the FCA published a Decision Notice in respect of Markos Markou, director and chief executive of a mortgage broker firm, Financial Solutions (Euro) Limited (FSE) seeking to impose a fine of £25,000 and ban him from working in financial services.
Mr Markou referred this matter to the Upper Tribunal who asked for the FCA to reconsider the proposed ban and directed that a fine should not be imposed. The FCA says it believed the decision to be incorrect and irrational and referred the matter to the Court of Appeal.
In a separate case, the FCA has announced that Colbourne & Company have been declared in default by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
“On 26 September 2024, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) declared Colbourne & Company in default. This means the firm is no longer trading.”
“On 23 June 2022, we placed restrictions on Colbourne & Company, stopping it from carrying out any regulated activities and preventing it from reducing the value of assets it holds without the consent of the FCA, due to concerns about the way it conducts its business,” the regulator has said.
The FCA has said two of its investigations involving unauthorised debt and claims management activities have resulted in arrests.
“The FCA, with the support of West Midlands Police, the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit and Police Scotland, has recently conducted 2 operations to search 7 addresses across the West Midlands, Cambridgeshire, Stirling and Cumbernauld. Two individuals were arrested in Birmingham and Huntingdon.”
The operations were conducted because the individuals are suspected of being involved in debt and claims management activities when they were not authorised by the FCA to do so, the regulator has said.
“The 2 suspects who were arrested were interviewed under caution, and then released. The FCA’s investigations continue.”
Regulation
Last week, the FCA announced it had given firms given until December 2025 to respond to motor finance commission complaints.
The regulator says “The extension will help prevent disorderly, inconsistent and inefficient outcomes for consumers and firms.”
“Firms now have until after 4 December 2025 to provide a final response to non-DCAs, in line with the extension we have already provided for complaints involving DCAs.”
Any consumers concerned that they weren’t told about commission and may have paid too much for their car finance, should complain, the regulator says.
“We have also confirmed that consumers will have until the later of 29 July 2026 or 15 months from the date of their final response letter from the firm, to refer a non-DCA complaint to the Financial Ombudsman (instead of the usual 6 months).”
Consultation
The FCA has said it has “set out proposals for extra support for millions of UK savers to help them make better decisions about their pensions.”
According to the regulator “[t]his is part of a wider review of how the boundary between advice and guidance on investments operates, which is underway to help make sure consumers are better supported.”
75% of the over 45 year olds in the UK who are saving into their pensions “do not have a clear plan for how to take money from their pension or didn’t know they had to make a choice,” the FCA has said.
FCA consumer research shows:
- engagement by consumers with and understanding of pensions is low.
- the vast majority of consumers are ill-equipped to manage complex pension decisions confidently as only 9% of adults have taken full regulated advice in the last 12 months (Financial Lives Survey, 2024).
- some people are disengaged because they fear knowing the reality of their pension pots – the so-called Ostrich effect – worrying about whether their pension will be sufficient in retirement.
As per the new proposals, “Firms would be able to provide a bespoke suggestion to specific groups of consumers who share the same characteristics.”
The regulator says it “encourages feedback from all stakeholders about the proposals and views are sought by mid-February 2025.”
Also last week, the FCA said it was seeking feedback on plans to improve the transparency of the UK’s crypto markets.
The regulator has said, “Clear crypto regulation will improve the integrity of the UK’s crypto markets, help protect people and support the UK’s growth and competitiveness.”
As part of its proposals, the FCA is “suggesting certain firms, like authorised crypto trading platforms, share information with each other to help stop suspected market abuse.”
“We want to develop a crypto regime that is fair, balanced and proportionate for all. We need input from the Government, our international partners, industry and consumers to help us get the future rules right,” the regulator has said.
Firms and individuals have until 14 March 2025 to provide their feedback to the FCA. The regulator has once again warned people that crypto, at present, remains highly unregulated in the UK and has high risk.
The FCA has started consultation on “proposals for a new platform – The Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES) – on which shares in private companies will be bought and sold have been set out by the FCA.”
“PISCES will open the door to more opportunities for investors to take stakes in private companies. Greater confidence to invest in these companies will lead to more funding to help them to grow and scale up,” a statement by the regulator says.
PISCES follows the FCA’s wide-ranging reforms to the UK’s world-leading markets to boost competitiveness by:
- reforming the prospectus regime, to make it cheaper and easier for companies to raise money in the UK
- giving asset managers greater freedom in how they pay for investment research and setting out proposals to extend that flexibility
- opening the Digital Securities Sandbox which allows firms to test innovative new technologies for trading and settling assets
- setting out a roadmap to regulating crypto
The FCA has said it “will work with market participants, industry leaders, trade bodies and platform operators to develop a proportionate regulatory framework that can support growth and enable innovation.”
The BoE, the FCA, the PRA, and the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) (the Authorities) have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which sets out the high-level framework that we use to cooperate with one another in relation to payment systems in the UK.
“The Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013 requires the Authorities to review the MoU annually,” the FCA has said in a statement.
“Senior representatives from the Bank, FCA, PRA and PSR have considered whether cooperation between the Authorities is working well,” the statement adds.
“Over the past year, we have taken steps to improve the sharing of expertise and data between our institutions. We recognise that there is scope for further improvement in our cooperation and we have committed to revise the MoU by Q2 of 2025 in line with the Government’s National Payments Vision (NPV).”
Media
The FCA has published a new report and an update on its work to establish an equities consolidated tape. The regulator says it “expects a CT to strengthen UK markets by making them more transparent and liquid.”
“A consolidated tape (CT) collates market data, such as prices and volumes associated with trades in a financial market. It aims to provide a comprehensive picture of transactions in a specific asset class, bringing together trades executed on trading venues as well as those arranged over-the-counter.”
The FCA says its latest update highlights “key insights from EE’s report, laying out our next steps for consulting on an equities CT in 2025 and seeking expressions of interest from potential providers of the CT.”
The FCA has welcomed the High Court’s decision made on 17 December 2024 in relation to a motor finance judicial review.
The regulator has said in a statement the decision brings “additional clarity the judgment brings to discretionary commission arrangement (DCA) complaints.”
“The High Court found in favour of the Financial Ombudsman ServiceLink is external, in a review of its decision to uphold a complaint relating to a discretionary commission arrangement (DCA) in a motor finance agreement. The Court dismissed all 3 grounds of appeal brought by the lender, Barclays Partner Finance,” the statement says.
“The Judge found that the Financial Ombudsman had interpreted our rules and the Consumer Credit Act 1974 correctly when deciding that the lender and car dealer involved in this case did not meet the relevant standards in place at the time.”
The FCA has also said it is currently carrying out a consultation process around the DCA in motor finance industry and plans to set out next steps by March 2025.
The FCA’s recent study has revealed that two-thirds of young investors take less than 24 hours to make investment decisions.
The “[l]atest research reveals that young investors are making important investment decisions in a matter of hours, rather than taking the time to check out whether the product is right for them in the long-term.”
Other key findings of the study include:
- A quarter of young investors admit they make investment decisions impulsively to keep up with current trends.
- £550 is average spend on hyped investment products.
- 66% of 18-40 year-old investors spend less than 24 hours deciding on an investment, and 14% finalise their decision in under an hour.
- Two in five investors regret purchasing a hyped investment product.
The FCA has called for people who may have invested in Collateral to come forward to the regulator so they can receive an apology. A statement from the regulator reads:
“Collateral offered peer-to-peer style investments. Its directors were able to fraudulently change details about the firms’ public entry on the FCA’s interim permission register. This change made it look like the firm held interim permission from the FCA to undertake consumer credit activities, which were granted to firms who transferred from the OFT to the FCA in 2014, when it did not.”
“The firm applied for full authorisation in March 2016. Opportunities were missed, during this process, to identify that the firm did not hold a valid interim permission and that the interim permission register was incorrect. Once the FCA had knowledge of the issues, it did not act promptly enough to tell the firm to stop regulated business and to correct the register.”
Following an investigation, the FCA prosecuted the directors, who were sentenced to a total of 8 years imprisonment for their role in the fraud in July 2023.
If you invested in Collateral and haven’t complained yet, fill out the FCA’s complaint form by 31 March 2025.
