Financial services provider Quilter is currently working with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to investigate a firm claiming to be one of its appointed representatives.
On 11 November, the regulator contacted the business after realising that a bond comparison website, going by the name of Vision Introducer and Money Bonds Market, was not a regulated entity, despite being listed as such on the FCA’s website.
It is not clear how Vision was listed on the regulator’s register as an appointed representative (AR) of Quilter.
Consumer finance campaigner Mark Taber alleged on social media that the watchdog’s register was hacked by the unregulated introducer.
A spokesperson for Quilter told International Adviser that a firm with the same name used to be a Quilter AR, as it was part of network Mint, which was acquired by its network Intrinsic, now Quilter Financial Planning.
The company, however, dissolved in 2012.
Swift action
An FCA spokesperson said: “We acted immediately by contacting Quilter, as the principal firm, who confirmed to the FCA [on 11 November] that it no longer has an appointed representative operating under the name Vision Introducer Limited.
“We immediately removed Vision Introducer Limited from the Financial Services Register.
“As always, we appreciate any intelligence which enables us to take action.”
A spokesperson from Quilter Financial Planning added: “We are continuing to investigate and work closely with the FCA to understand how this incident occurred.
“It is vital the sector stays vigilant to scams and frauds as they have become more elaborate over time, so we’re grateful it was brought to our attention.”
Legislative effort
But, Quilter Financial Planning believes that harsher action must be taken by the UK government to clamp down on fraud and scams of this kind.
The spokesperson continued: “Unfortunately, these types of impersonation scams are becoming increasingly prevalent.
“This is why we are calling on the government to act to create a legally enforceable system to prevent search engines and social media platforms from hosting scam adverts on their sites as soon as they are notified.
“This can be achieved through the Online Harms legislation scheduled to be introduced to Parliament next year.”
Quilter is the latest firm to fall victim to impersonation scams, as IA previously reported that Prudential had to deal with fraudsters contacting consumers and pretending to work for the life insurer.
Recently, the FCA revealed that reports of clone firms and impersonation scams made up 45% of warnings it issued since 2015.
