Last week, the FCA announced it had charged John Burford for carrying on an unauthorized business and dishonestly misleading investors.
According to a press release by the regulator, “he is suspected of generating over £1m ($1.33m)” from his illicit activities between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2023.
“Mr Burford is alleged to have accepted money from more than 100 investors, and advised and managed investments on their behalf without authorization,” the press release added.
As the sole director of Financial Trading Strategies Limited (FTS), “he promoted paid subscription services involving the provision of daily trade alerts which gave advice on trading opportunities as well as investments in three ‘Tramline’ funds.”
Steve Smart, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “Fighting financial crime is central to our new strategy and we will take action against criminal behavior which harms consumers and damages the integrity of our markets. We allege that Mr Burford sought to defraud his clients for personal gain.”
Regulation
The FCA has confirmed that Blackthorn Finance Ltd entered special administration on April 14 , 2025. The firm was authorized to serve a range of corporate and individual customers.
According to a press release, “Adam Stephens, Philip Hemming and Kevin Ley of S&W Partners LLP were appointed joint special administrators.”
“On November 17, 2023, the FCA imposed restrictions on Blackthorn’s activities and an asset requirement. On 29 August 2024, Blackthorn entered Members Voluntary Liquidation, a solvent form of winding up,” the press release adds.
Also last week, the FCA said it was “proposing to remove unnecessary data reporting for firms, helping to reduce burden and unlock economic growth.”
In a press release, the regulator said: “The three collections identified will also be removed from the firm handbook, helping to further simplify our reporting requirements, and deliver on our commitment in our response to the PM’s growth letter.”
Jessica Rusu, chief data, intelligence and information officer at the FCA, said: “In our strategy, we committed to being a smarter regulator and supporting growth. So while we need data to do our job, we should challenge ourselves on whether what we’re asking for is needed. We’re getting rid of these data requests, saving time and money for thousands of firms, and we will review more in the future.”
In a separate press release, the FCA announced further plans to boost confidence and drive investment.
“The proposals together with those in the first consultation set out the FCA’s ambition of building a new, bolder regime and it is open minded about how it can be designed in a way which best meets the needs of prospective investors,” the regulator said.
Media
In a major development last week, the FCA announced it was establishing a presence in the United States (US) and Asia-Pacific (APAC) for the first time.
Operations in the US have already kicked-off under Tash Miah, who is working out of the British Embassy in Washington, DC, according to a press release.
“Tash will work closely with the Department for Business and Trade to advance UK-US financial services policy and regulatory cooperation, and support financial firms in the US to navigate UK regulation,” the press release reads.
Also, Camille Blackburn will establish a regional office in Australia from July 2025 as the FCA’s director – Asia-Pacific, the regulator has said.
“The role will focus on supporting financial services firms to navigate regulation to enter the UK market or raise capital and provide UK firms with support expanding into the APAC region,” according to the FCA.
Suman Ziaullah, Head of technology, resilience and cyber at the FCA, has written a blog on the ending of the watchdog’s Operational Resilience Transition Period, which ended on March 31, 2025.
Ziaullah has argued that, despite a huge number of firms doing a lot more on the compliance front, there is still a lot more do be done to keep businesses and operations safe from harm.
“Firms need to expect the unexpected and be prepared to maintain their services in all severe but plausible scenarios to prevent intolerable harm,” he warned.
The blog discusses. factors that set resilient organizations apart, rebalancing risk to support growth and looking beyond the deadlines to keep up the positive work.
On 11 April 2025, Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, delivered a speech at the Spring Conference of NYU’s Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement.
Highlights included:
- The FCA has a strong, productive history of working with partner agencies in the US, and will continue to do so.
- Enforcement action is about deterrence. Action to deter misconduct needs to be timely and visible.
- Enforcement priorities for the next five years are about keeping dirty money out of the financial ecosystem, cracking down on regulated firms being used as vehicles for fraud, and protecting the integrity of UK markets.
We covered the speech in detail.
