The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced on Thursday that it is taking assertive action against the rampant financial scams in the consumer investment market. In addition, it has alarmed investors against scams involving crypto assets, boiler rooms and recovery rooms.
Additionally, the financial market supervisor said that it has received 16,400 inquiries between April and September last year about possible scams, a figure that is around 30 percent higher than the previous year.
In response, the regulator has opened more than 300 cases related to un-registered crypto-asset businesses, many of which are suspected to be scams. The regulator already has 50 live investigations against these crypto companies that even include criminal probes.
“Consumers need to have confidence when making investment decisions, and the data we’ve published today shows how prevalent scams can be,” said Sarah Pritchard, FCA’s Executive Director of Markets.
Crypto Firms Are the Target
The FCA mandated all crypto companies operating in the United Kingdom register themselves with the agency. It received hundreds of requests from the crypto service providers, but the approval process turned out to be very slow. To date, only a few companies have received the approval of the British regulator.
Furthermore, the regulator said that it has stopped a quarter of applications from firms wanting to join the consumer investment market, which is a proportion that is up from 1 in 5 in the last financial year.
“Addressing the risk of harm at the authorization stage prevents firms that do not meet the FCA’s minimum standards from entering the regulatory perimeter,” the regulator added. “It also helps prevent problems further down the line which may require supervision or enforcement action.”
