In the past year, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has reduced harm to consumers and businesses by stopping 627 firms, that failed to meet the minimum standards, from operating.

This is up 30% from the previous year, illustrating the FCA’s determination to enforce high standards in the financial services sector.

The figures come as the regulator has set out how it has worked to reduce and prevent serious harm, set and test higher standards and promote competition and positive change as part of its report on performance during 2022-2023.

In a year when many people felt pressure from the rising cost of living the FCA has:

acted quickly to set out how lenders should provide tailored support to struggling borrowers
warned insurers to protect their customers from unnecessary add-ons or unfair penalties
secured up to £47 million in redress for borrowers in financial difficulty for the way their lenders treated them
In addition to working to protect consumers from harm, the FCA continues to support competition across the sector and the proposed reforms to listing will remove barriers to entry for companies tapping the market for capital.

The FCA has also published the first set of performance statistics from the first year of its 3-year strategy.

The FCA estimates that for every pound spent on its operations last year, firms and individuals benefitted by £17 through its action.

Ashley Alder, Chair of the FCA, said:

“Maintaining high standards is key to supporting growth. We are helping firms test their innovative products, guiding firms through the authorisation process and are supporting a range of supply and demand-side market reforms.

“On the 31 July, the new Consumer Duty will raise the bar for retail financial services and place good consumer outcomes at the heart of everything they do.”