The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that it would double down on its efforts to prevent investors from coming to harm. It stated this in a press release which also detailed its plans for regulations and achievement in the past few months.
FCA investigated 300 crypto firms
The watchdog received more than 16,400 inquiries about possible scams between April to September last year. Crypto scams were the majority of these. This led it to investigate potential crypto scam businesses, opening 300 cases.
But not all these cases involved actual scams. In many cases, they were unregistered securities. Presently, 50 of those cases are under investigation for connection to unauthorized business activities and crimes.
This report shows the extent of unregulated crypto activities in the UK and the herculean task ahead for the commission.
The FCA consumer data review report shows that the body was able to stop the registration of 1 in 4 firms due to the suspicious backgrounds of the team. It has also blacklisted 172 firms, adding them to its list of unregistered crypto businesses.
However, a lot more still depends on the consumers. According to Sarah Pritchard, the executive director of markets at the FCA,
Consumers need to have confidence when making investment decisions, and the data we’ve published today shows how prevalent scams can be. Before investing, check if you know who you are really dealing with, check if they are authorized by the FCA, and do your research…
