The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is investigating 107 advice firms, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed.
The FCA said in the FOI statement: “We have interpreted ‘advice firms’ as firms that are authorised to have permissions to offer advice.
“We have interpreted ‘investigation’ to mean a formal enforcement investigation commenced on the appointment of investigators under one of the relevant provisions in the Financial Services and Markets Act.
“These investigations are not solely confined to concerns about potential misconduct arising from advice permissions.”
Previous activity
The UK regulator also said that 130 financial adviser companies were under investigation in 2019.
“This includes all investigations into advice firms that are either ongoing or closed in 2019,” the UK regulator said in the FOI.
The financial watchdog previously said it is cracking down on different areas of the financial advice market.
International Adviser reported in June that the FCA ordered seven skilled person reviews into financial advice companies between 2017 and 2020.
Elsewhere, in June 2020, the FCA said it was carrying out 30 enforcement investigations, arising from concerns identified in the course of its defined benefit (DB) pension transfer market review.
