FCA abandons plan to ‘name and shame’ more companies it investigates

The FCA is abandoning its plan to name more companies that it investigates.

Last year, the regulator proposed applying a new public interest test, which would have allowed it to name firms under investigation if deemed to be in the public interest.

However, the plans were condemned by a wide range of financial services and business organisations, which said the move could harm the integrity of the sector at a time when the regulatory burden continues to increase.

In a letter sent to the treasury select committee today (12 March 2025), the regulator said that “given the lack of consensus, we will not take forward our proposal to shift to a public interest test for announcing investigations into regulated firms”.

Instead, the FCA will stick to its stricter exceptional circumstances test.

Nikhil Rathi, chief executive at the FCA, said: “We are speeding up our enforcement work. On our enforcement transparency proposals, we have always aimed to build a broad consensus.

“Considerable concerns remain about our proposal to change the way we publicise investigations into regulated firms, so we will stick to publicising in exceptional circumstances as we do today.”

Decision welcomed

The IUA welcomed the decision, with it saying that going ahead with the plans “would have made it more likely that investigations may be published prematurely”.

Helen Dalziel, IUA director of public policy, added: “Our members were very strongly opposed to the FCA’s plans.

”It is good news that the test for publicising investigations will not be altered. We believe that the FCA already has the powers it requires to effectively carry out enforcement action.

“There is now less likelihood of negative publicity creating a prejudicial environment in which guilt is presumed. The concept of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ is a fundamental doctrine of criminal law and the mere association with an ongoing investigation could cause substantial harm to a firm’s standing in the market.”