The FCA has called for regulated firms to report the unlawful promotion of financial services online as the watchdog adapts its approach to tackling financial crime.
Lucy Castledine, the FCA’s director of consumer investments, said the regulator will continue to take action against those who give advice unlawfully, to protect consumers and the integrity of the markets, but added it is “too easy” to promote illegal content online.
In a speech at the Personal Investment Management & Financial Advice Association (PIMFA) Compliance Conference 2025 earlier this week, Castledine said: “We are ready and determined to act against bad actors as always, but with a changing world we also want to adapt our approach to raise standards together more collaboratively.
“We want to hear from regulated firms if you are seeing illegal content online and any challenges you are experiencing when reporting illegal content to tech platforms, such as if you spot deep fake scams of your firms.”
Castledine’s comments follow the ‘international week of action’ in June, when nine regulators, from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom took part in the week of action against unlawful finfluencers.
With the Online Safety Act in the process of being implemented, Castledine said social media platforms must “step up” and stop illegal content at source.
“There are still too many weaknesses in the controls of social media platforms. It is too easy to promote illegal content online. It is too easy for bad actors to evade blocks, such as by ‘phoenixing’ or ‘lifeboating’ to new accounts. Not enough is being done to combat new threats, such as deep fake scams of authorised firms,” she said.
“Not only do these weaknesses harm consumers, but they undermine efforts by legitimate financial services firms to ‘meet’ consumers where we know they are turning for support – online.”
