The Financial Conduct Authority plans to name firms under investigation at an earlier stage in a bid to increase transparency and deter wrongdoing.
The regulator outlined the new enforcement approach in a consultation paper published today (27 February).
It said this would mainly apply to firms rather than individuals due to legal constraints around privacy.
Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said: “We want to be more transparent about what we investigate, so firms will be reassured whether they are on the right track (and can pivot if they are not) and so that the public can be reassured that we are on the case.
“We want to drive our own accountability by shining a light on the efficiency and pace of our investigations. So, where it is in the public interest to do so, we propose to announce the opening of an investigation into a firm. We will also be upfront about our progress and about when we have had to close a case.
“We must also tackle the delay between misconduct occurring and penalty being imposed if we are to boost confidence in our markets. The longer it takes for outcomes to be determined or justice to be served, the longer it takes for us to send important signals to the markets we oversee about what we consider serious misconduct to be. We cannot control the whole timeline of justice, for example when a case goes to trial, but we can speed up our investigations and prioritise the cases that will have the most impact.”
The FCA consultation closes on 16 April.
Meanwhile, Chambers said the FCA has imposed fines of £41.5m since last April. She noted that the regulator will “prioritise compensation to consumers over fines where that is the right thing to do”.
FCA recently issued a fine of nearly £32,000 to a former director of London Capital & Finance, Floris Jakobus Huisamen, for signing off “misleading financial promotions”. He has been banned from working in financial services.
It secured the conviction of a former Goldman Sachs analyst, Mohammed Zina, who was found guilty of six offences of insider dealing and three offences of fraud.
It also secured the conviction of Guy Flintham, who defrauded 240 investors over a £19m investment scheme.
