UK Watchdog Shutters 1,600 Unlawful Financial Services Websites

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority shuttered over 1,600 websites last year suspected of promoting financial services without permission.

The sites were either suspended, removed or blocked as part of an ongoing anti-financial crime effort, according to a Thursday (July 10) press release issued with the FCA’s annual report.

“Our annual report shows how we’ve laid the strongest possible foundation from which to implement our new strategy,” FCA Chair Ashley Alder said in the release. “We’ll build on this over the next five years to deepen trust and rebalance risk so we can support growth and improve lives.”

In addition to shutting down the websites, the FCA worked with Big Tech platforms, leading to more than 50 apps being pulled from Google Play and Apple’s App Store, helping to “block fraud at source,” per the release.

New technology also helped the FCA identify companies that did not meet its standards earlier and at scale, the release said. Last year, the regulator took steps to make sure nearly 20,000 non-compliant financial promotions were amended or withdrawn by authorized firms. In 2021, that number was fewer than 600.

In addition, the FCA took action against illegal financial promotions by unauthorized “finfluencers” and canceled the authorizations of more than 1,500 firms, 20% more than in 2023 and more than triple the number in 2021, per the release.

“We’ve embraced data and technology to crack down on harm and ensure high standards,” FCA CEO Nikhil Rathi said in the release.

Rathi said the regulator’s strategy has led to achievements such as the biggest changes to listing rules in more than 30 years and making it easier for companies to raise capital.

In other fraud prevention news, PYMNTS examined the role tokenization plays in anti-fraud efforts in an interview Thursday with Valeri Vanourek, vice president of digital products at Discover® Network.

“Securing data via tokenization ensures that it is useless to fraudsters or criminals if they obtain it,” Vanourek said.

That data security can add up to fewer fraud incidents and better authorization rates when network tokens are in the mix.

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