The FCA is ‘working hard’ to shorten the timeframe for enforcement investigations to boost confidence in the financial services sector, according to senior FCA executive Therese Chambers.

Enforcement investigations are becoming ‘faster and more focused' the regulator’s joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight told AFME’s European Compliance and Legal Conference yesterday.

She highlighted how seven recent cases reached a public outcome within 16 months, in comparison to 2023/24 when cases took an average of 42 months to come to a conclusion.

Ms Chambers highlighted this enforcement work as being important to improve consumer confidence in financial services.

She said: “By pursuing and punishing these kinds of predatory crooks, we aren’t just protecting individual consumers. We are protecting the wider integrity of our market.”

Ms Chambers said it is important for firms that they do not see financial crime control costs as a compliance cost, but as an investment.

She said: “Financial crime controls may look like compliance costs on a spreadsheet. But they are the ultimate investment – saving firms money and paying dividends in the one commodity our markets can’t function without: confidence.

“Enforcement is important, but it’s not a silver bullet.

“Real confidence has to be built upstream – through prevention, proportionality and collaboration. That takes time, and it takes all of us – regulators and industry – working together.”

She also highlighted the investigation into collapsed wealth manager WealthTek as being the kind of case that is important for building consumer confidence and an example of “proportionate, effective enforcement in action”.

In December 2024, the FCA charged WealthTek’s principal partner with multiple criminal offences, including money laundering and fraud.

In July the FCA also fined Barclays Bank UK PLC and Barclays Bank PLC a total of £42m for major failings in their financial crime risk management including one relating WealthTek.

Barclays has agreed to make a voluntary payment of £6.3 million to WealthTek’s clients who have a shortfall in the money they have been able to reclaim.