Financial crime robs people and businesses of their hard-earned money. It seeks to hide the profits made from serious offences. It reduces the amount of money available to invest and grow businesses and makes our markets less attractive.
We prioritised fighting financial crime in our last strategy and have strengthened our contribution to the collective effort.
We set out our outcomes and metrics for this theme below.
| Outcome | Metric description | Source | Baseline value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slowed growth in investment fraud* | Continue to slow the growth in investment fraud victims and losses | National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) | 20247.6% reduction in victims 5.1% growth in losses In 2024 compared to 2023 |
| Slowed growth in Authorised push payment (APP) fraud | Continue to slow the growth in APP fraud cases and losses | UK Finance | 202312% growth in cases 5% reduction in losses In 2023 compared to 2022 Baseline to be updated when 2024 values are available |
| Protect market integrity | Increase in cleanliness of UK markets through the FCA’s 3 market cleanliness statistics | FCA | 2023Market cleanliness – 30.3% Abnormal Trading Volume – 5.6% Potentially Anomalous Trading Ratio – 3.3% Baseline to be updated when 2024 values are available |
| Tackle money laundering through the financial system | FCA | There is no current measure for the total amount of money laundering in the UK. However, we track metrics on our AML supervisory activities as part of annual Treasury reporting |
Why we have chosen these metrics and limitations
We use metrics from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) and UK Finance to monitor the volume and value of investment and APP fraud in the UK. We want to see a slowdown in growth of these types of fraud as these are high harm frauds. A whole system approach involving law enforcement, government and cross-sector partners is needed to achieve this as sociological, economic, political and technological factors also impact the metric.
These data sources track reported fraud. Whilst it is estimated that only 13% of all fraud incidents are reported, and therefore metrics are sensitive to changes in levels of reporting, they provide a good picture of the trajectory of fraud. They also allow for deeper analysis of the sources of fraud and age demographic of victims.
We use 3 statistics to track the cleanliness of the markets:
(1) our new market cleanliness statistic, which captures instances where a takeover offer announcement causes positive abnormal price movements in the 2 days preceding the news
(2) Abnormal Trading Volume (ATV), which tracks abnormal increases in trading volume ahead of potentially price sensitive announcements
(3) Potentially Anomalous Trading Ratio (PATR), which tracks potentially anomalous trading that occurs ahead of price sensitive news announcement
These metrics need to be looked at in the round as factors unrelated to market abuse can affect market behaviour. Price movements before takeover announcements that appear abnormal may simply reflect market conditions. Other factors can also influence price movements before takeover announcements, such as financial analysts or the media correctly assessing likely takeover targets or significant legitimate trades that occur before an announcement.
There is no current measure for the total amount of money laundering in the UK, however we track metrics on our anti-money laundering (AML) supervisory activities as part of annual Treasury reporting.