The FCA has today confirmed that it will only partially axe its 'name and shame' proposals for firms under investigation.

In its finalised revisions to its Enforcement Guide published this morning it said firms under investigation will be named and shamed in “exceptional circumstances”.

The FCA said: “As previously announced, we have retained the 'exceptional circumstances' test for announcing investigations into regulated and listed firms.”

The FCA had been considering revealing investigations at an earlier stage to alert the public, the so-called ‘name and shame’ plan. Critics had called the plans excessive and potentially damaging to firms' reputations if investigations proved no harm had been done.

The regulator said: "Our consultation included proposals for a new investigation publicity policy to provide a measured increase in transparency under a ‘public interest’ test. Following feedback to our consultation, we revised these proposals and limited the resulting policy changes.

It added: "We have implemented most of the other changes on which we consulted."

The FCA said it had identified three situations where there was broad support for increased transparency:

• Where it is investigating suspected unauthorised financial services, or a suspected offence relating to unregulated activity, and an announcement will warn consumers or investors or help the investigation.
• Where the fact of the investigation has been made public by the subject, an affiliated company or a regulatory body, government or public body.
• Anonymised announcements, not naming or identifying the subject of the investigation, where it would be helpful to educate people on the types of misconduct we are investigating.

The regulator said the changes will only apply to investigations launched on or after today.

It said it will continue to “improve the pace and focus of our investigations, increasing the impact of our work for the benefit of consumers and markets, and therefore the wider economy.”

The regulator reported that five recent investigations closed with a public outcome in less than 16 months, compared to an average length of 42 months in 2023/24.