FCA intensifies action against financial promotions

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is coming down hard on firms that continue to act outside of its rules on financial promotions, with the number of adverts withdrawn or amended by the regulator jumping 61% in the last year.

The regulator took action against 204 financial promotions in 2012/13. That has risen to 328 in 2013/14, said Bovill, the financial services regulatory consultancy. Bovill said the jump is the result of an increasingly interventionist approach by the FCA as well as a raft of recent updates to the rules on financial promotions. The FCA has taken on new powers to intervene in firms' marketing of financial products. For example, in August the FCA used its temporary product intervention powers to ban the sale of contingent convertible securities (CoCos) to retail investors for one year. ...