The debt packager ban came into effect on 2 October 2023, prohibiting firms from receiving commission, fee or any other financial consideration from a debt solution provider for referrals, with certain exclusions.
Simon Hughes of S&M Hughes Limited was banned from providing pension transfer advice and ordered to pay £158,600 in compensation to customers for the unsuitable advice they received.
The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has enacted legislation that requires firms such as social media platforms, app stores, search engines, domain name registrars and payments firms to take part in protecting UK consumers from illegal cryptoasset promotions.
The FCA has imposed restrictions on rebuildingsociety.com Ltd to prevent it from approving cryptoasset financial promotions, meaning that consumers cannot receive promotions from unregistered cryptoasset firms related to new investment activity.
The FCA found that former CEO of Barclays, James Staley, acted recklessly and with a lack of integrity by approving a letter to the FCA containing misleading statements about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, and has fined him £1.8 million and banned him from further senior positions in the financial services industry.
The FCA has censured London Capital & Finance for its unfair and misleading financial promotions of minibonds, but chose not to impose a financial penalty as LCF is insolvent and in administration.
The FCA welcomes the CMA's environmental sustainability guidance on the application of Chapter I of the Competition Act 1998 and will continue to collaborate with them in this area.