FCA releases latest stats on enforcement

The FCA’s latest Enforcement Data, released with the FCA’s 2025/26 Annual Report, provide an intriguing snapshot into the regulator’s current enforcement activity. 

Headline points:

• Investigations into financial crime continue to dominate.

• The number of open investigations has remained static at 127.

• Redress continues to be a priority.

The figures show an slight increase in overall enforcement outcomes (47 actions in FY 2025/26, up from 42 in FY 2024/25), driven by an increase in the number of criminal convictions secured (from 5 to 17).

Fewer final notices and financial penalties

The figures show that there has been an almost 20% drop in the number of final notices issued (from 37 to 30), and an over 56% decrease in the number of financial penalties issued to firms (from 16 to 7). However, the number of financial penalties issued to individuals has slightly increased from 13 to 18. Fewer published outcomes leads to a lower total amount of penalties overall: the average ‘fine per outcome’ has dropped from £6.42m to £5.16m.

Targeted enforcement outcomes

The latest figures also show that the number of operations opened has increased by 10 (from 23 to 33 this year) with 17 of them relating to fighting financial crime and fraud. However, the number of operations closed has dropped from 81 to 36, with 44% closed with no further action taken. This is consistent with the FCA’s current approach to enforcement, which is tilted towards supervisory interventions and reserves full enforcement investigations for only the most serious cases of suspected ham.

Interventions

The FCA opened 265 new intervention cases, up from 260. The number of voluntary requirements (VREQs) the FCa secured stayed almost the same at 92, up from 90.

Redress and settlement schemes net £82.1m

The stats show that an estimated £82.1m was secured for consumers and investors through redress schemes, settlements and civil proceedings. This again reflects the importance the FCA places on firms’ remediating harm and compensating consumers who have suffered harm.

The FCA Enforcement Data 2025/26 published on 9 July 2026 is available here.