While the FCA continues to mull how it might share more information on themes and trends in its enforcement work (following enthusiasm for this sort of market update from respondents to its ill-fated prior attempts at 'transparency'), we look at what we can glean from its annual enforcement data, published as part of the FCA's Annual Report and Accounts.
- The total number of enforcement cases has significantly reduced again this year, with 130 open cases at end March 2025, compared to 188 open cases at the same time in 2024.
- This has been achieved through a greater number of cases being closed in the year 2024/25 – 81, against 60 in 2023/24; while the number of newly opened cases has remained fairly static (23 in 2024/25 v 25 in 2023/24).
- The closing of cases has led to 37 Enforcement Final Notices, compared to 21 in the prior year.
- However, for a regulator who is espousing increased transparency in enforcement, it is disappointing that the breakdown of open cases is missing in this year's data. Last year, the FCA said that its 188 open Enforcement operations comprised investigations into 341 individuals and 162 firms. There is no such information in this year's data.
- It is possible to unearth some of the missing information from
other sources:
- in a letter to the Treasury Committee in March, the FCA said that, as of 5 March 2025, it had 105 open investigations into firms; and
- buried in CP25/21 (the FCA's SMCR Review Consultation Paper published last week), we learn that, as at July 2025, the FCA has 22 ongoing investigations into suspected breaches of COCON. No doubt there are non-COCON investigations into individuals which are ongoing but that information is not available.
- The FCA has been quick to applaud itself on the increased pace of some of its investigations, including in a recent response to the House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee where it said that five recent investigations had achieved a public outcome in less than 16 months, compared to an average length of 42 months for investigations closed in 2023/24. But the enforcement data tells us that almost 60% of open regulatory investigations have been in the investigation stage for more than 24 months.
- Reducing and preventing financial crime remains high on the agenda for Enforcement, with 75 of the 130 open cases relating to this area, including 17 of the 23 cases opened in 2024/25. And financial crime remains a Supervisory priority as well – with 25% of s166 reviews commissioned in 2024/25 relating to financial crime.
In short, there are promising signs that the FCA is steadily edging towards a position where its case load becomes more streamlined. However, there remains a way to go to fully achieve its objective of speeding up investigation times.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
