Regulations
By Dan Saada
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The Ban Didn't Stop the Ads. Here's the thing. The FCA permanently banned marketing of speculative illiquid securities to…
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Lucy Castledine's Warning Is Worth Repeating. Lucy Castledine, the FCA's director of consumer investments, was direct about it.
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Calling for a Legislative Fix. The FCA's Perimeter Report went further, pushing the government to look hard at legislative…
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The FCA isn't messing around. Britain's financial watchdog just put out a sharp warning on unregulated loan notes and mini-bonds, pointing directly to a string of recent cases…
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The trigger was Woodville Consultants Ltd, a litigation funder that raised money from retail investors through unregulated loan notes and then collapsed.
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Loan notes and mini-bonds work simply enough on paper. A company borrows your money for a set period and pays you interest. When it works, fine.
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Here's the thing. The FCA permanently banned marketing of speculative illiquid securities to retail investors back in January 2021. That's not a recent rule.
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The red flags are usually right there in the promotion itself. Urgent action required. High fixed returns. Vague or buried risk warnings. These aren't subtle.
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Scammers, the FCA says, often try to borrow credibility from regulated firms or from overseas exchanges. Some use trust structures specifically designed to get around FCA rules.
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There's also a specific tactic worth knowing: consumers get nudged to self-certify as experienced investors.
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More context: FCA Bans Beauforce Manager Howard Duckett for Fabricated Evidence and Dishonesty
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Lucy Castledine, the FCA's director of consumer investments, was direct about it. "Big, fixed returns are a warning sign," she said. Not a green light. A warning sign.
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That matters because if you go in through an unregulated route, you're basically on your own. The Financial Ombudsman Service probably can't help you.
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So far this year, the FCA has issued over 1,200 warnings, stopped unlawful promotions, and sent cases to law enforcement. That's a lot of activity.
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The FCA's Perimeter Report went further, pushing the government to look hard at legislative exemptions that currently let certain high-risk investments be marketed outside FCA…
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