FCA and PRA investigations, enforcement and discipline

Background to enforcement

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is the UK’s regulator of conduct in retail and wholesale markets, supervises the trading infrastructure behind those markets and oversees prudential regulation of firms not prudentially regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). The FCA is responsible for the regulation of conduct across the financial services sector, in firms and markets of all sizes and in all sectors of the industry. Its responsibility spans wholesale and retail conduct, market integrity, protection of client assets and prevention of financial crime. Its wide-ranging remit means that it must respond to a range of issues which require regulatory intervention. These issues range from cases involving threshold conditions (where authorised firms fall short of the FCA’s minimum standards to be authorised) all the way to significant breaches or instances of misconduct widely effecting markets and/or consumers.

The FCA has a number of regulatory tools (supervisory interventions, disciplinary tools and enforcement tools) designed