Therese Chambers, the FCA’s joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said on Wednesday that the regulator has been driving earlier intervention and faster enforcement outcomes since July 2024, according to a speech published by the FCA.
Speaking at the 22nd Annual IBA Anti-Corruption Conference, Chambers said the FCA logged 42 enforcement outcomes in 2024, 38 in 2025 and 18 by 1 June 2026. Ten investigations have reached a public outcome within 16 months or less since July 2024.
“We are making fuller use of the tools available to us, including the credible threat of enforcement, to step in before harm escalates,” Chambers said.
She cited a case where the FCA paused approval of a prospectus for a life sciences fundraising after concluding it resembled a pump-and-dump scheme the regulator was already tracking. The company abandoned the raise less than two weeks later.
Chambers said the FCA is now acting “in weeks, rather than months or years,” using supervisory tools, market oversight and proactive detection alongside formal enforcement.
The FCA regulates more than 40,000 firms, supervises 1,720 listed issuers, and receives 35 million transaction reports daily.
