Reference Case Number: FOI8372
Freedom of Information: Right to know request:
1. The number of firms from your Advisors and Intermediaries portfolio* that had to shut down permanently due to insolvency from January 2020 to 27 May 2021.
- Please indicate the number for each month of the indicated period.
- Please indicate the amount of money spent for the compensation of their clients for each year.
2. The number of firms from your Advisors and Intermediaries portfolio that have been sanctioned or fined for advising products they were not allowed to advise between January 2016 and today (27 May 2021).
Please indicate the number of firms sanctioned for each month of the indicated period.
Please provide the total amount of fines (and other sanctions) for each year of the indicated period.
* The Advisors and Intermediaries portfolio is primarily made up of financial advisers who offer advice on retail investment products. Firms will typically hold the ‘Advising on Investments’ permission and provide regulated advice on investing, protection, saving into a pension and taking income in retirement. A proportion of these firms provide defined benefit pension transfer advice and most firms also generate revenue from advice on products in other portfolios (e.g., mortgages and insurance). A smaller sub-set of firms are referred to as ‘other investment intermediaries’, these firms operate more ‘niche’ services for retail clients to purchase investments on a non-advised basis, investment consultancy services to retail consumers/corporates and authorised professional firms (e.g., solicitors and accountants).
FCA response:
1a. Our response is contained in the table below. However, please note the following:
- The information provided below is accurate as at 3 May 2022.
- The information provided is based on firm failures and insolvencies that the FCA are notified of by firms as part of their regulatory obligations.
- The figures set out below do not include failures of Appointed Representative and Agent firms; only firms that are directly authorised by the FCA have been included.
- The insolvency processes covered by these figures are insolvent liquidations (Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation and Compulsory Liquidation) and Administrations. They also do not include Members’ Voluntary Liquidations (MVLs) as this is a solvent form of liquidation.
|
Date of commencement of Insolvency Proceedings |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
January |
2 |
1 |
2 |
|
February |
0 |
2 |
2 |
|
March |
3 |
1 |
3 |
|
April |
1 |
3 |
1 |
|
May |
0 |
1 |
n/a |
|
June |
1 |
2 |
n/a |
|
July |
3 |
3 |
n/a |
|
August |
4 |
1 |
n/a |
|
September |
3 |
2 |
n/a |
|
October |
1 |
4 |
n/a |
|
November |
3 |
2 |
n/a |
|
December |
2 |
0 |
n/a |
1b. We are unable to answer this question as the FCA does not keep records of all compensation payments made to clients by firms.
2. We can confirm there have been no firms from our Advisors and Intermediaries portfolio which shut down that have been sanctioned/fined for advising products without the appropriate permissions between January 2016 and 27 May 2021.