Reference Case Number: FOI2025/01017
Freedom of Information: Right to know request:
Please provide information relating to the regulatory gateway for the approval of financial promotions by unauthorised firms and various other topics.
Full details of your request can be found in Annex A below.
FCA response:
We can confirm that we hold the requested information, which is set out below.
1. Regarding the regulatory gateway for the approval of financial promotions by unauthorised firms that was open between 6 November 2023 and 6 February 2024, of the 107 firms that submitted a variation of permission application to obtain the “Approver Permission”
- 75 have been approved
- 1 has been rejected
- 30 have had the applications withdrawn
- 1 is still in the assessment stage
2. The number of firms since 7 February 2024 who held the “Approver Permission” but have since had it cancelled is 0.
3. Since 7 February 2024, 27 firms have submitted a variation of permission application to obtain the “Approver Permission”.
4. Of those 27 applications, 17 have been approved.
5. Since the commencement of the 2024-5 Financial year, the FCA exercised its powers under section 166 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 against one principal firm over concerns regarding their supervision or oversight of its appointed representatives.
6. The number of FCA enforcement investigations currently open into firms and individuals, broken down as requested, is as follows:
All data provided below are accurate as of 30 Sep 2025.
| Open investigations | Firms | Individuals |
|---|---|---|
| (a) Civil | 17 | 10 |
| (b) Criminal | 39 | 123 |
| (c) Dual track | 34 | 60 |
| (d) Regulatory | 26 | 55 |
| Total | 116 | 248 |
7. The numbers of FCA enforcement investigations into firms [and individuals] opened and closed from 2022 to date are as follows?
| Year | Firms | Individuals | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opened | Closed | Opened | Closed | |
| 2022 | 61 | 57 | 109 | 74 |
| 2023 | 28* | 77 | 48* | 92 |
| 2024 | 18 | 63 | 33 | 121 |
| 2025 | 26 | 37 | 37 | 56 |
* Please be aware that, in collating this data, we identified some discrepancies with the data provided to you in response to your previous request under the reference FOI11536. That previous response said that, in 2023, 30 FCA enforcement investigations into firms and 49 into individuals were opened. To ensure the complete accuracy of the data provided to you, we undertook a comprehensive reconciliation exercise of the data we hold, which resulted in some changes to the figures previously provided to you.
8. The outcomes of closed investigations into firms [and individuals], broken down as requested, is set out in the table below:
| Firms | Individuals | Firms | Individuals | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2023 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2024 | 2025 | |
| Variation / cancellation / withdrawal of approval / permissions (see note 1 below) | 2* | |||||||
| Financial penalty | 16 | 6 | 10 | 3 | 13 | 8 | 16 | 10 |
| Public censure | 1 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | ||
| Criminal outcome | 1 | 7 | 9 | 9 | ||||
| Early Intervention* | ||||||||
| Civil outcome | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| No action | 26 | 45 | 48 | 61 | ||||
| Redress / restitution | 5 | 1 | 4 | 1 | ||||
| Other action** | 13 | 13 | 15 | 18 | ||||
| Prohibition | 11 | 10 | 2 |
*Variations, cancellations and early interventions are not generally considered or recorded as outcomes of investigations carried out by our Enforcement division. The two individual outcomes for 2023 included in the first row of the table relate to enforcement actions which resulted in the withdrawal of approvals held by the relevant individuals.
**Further, we have interpreted “Other action” to mean those instances where we have concluded an enforcement investigation without taking enforcement action but have instead dealt with the matter using different tools. This may mean active engagement with the subjects by our supervisory teams, or the referral of matters to other agencies.
Information about the FCA’s operating service metrics 2024/25, including data about the enforcement actions we took in 2024/25, is also available here - https://landmark-phase.live/data/fca-operating-service-metrics-2024-25/enforcement-data%3Cspan class="print-footnote">[1].