The FCA's joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, Therese Chambers, used a speech at the International Bar Association's Anti-Corruption Conference to outline the regulator's broader approach to tackling financial crime — emphasising that high-profile prosecutions represent only a fraction of its enforcement activity. Chambers highlighted the volume of preventive work carried out daily by FCA teams: market surveillance, prospectus reviews designed to intercept fraudulent fundraising schemes, and the removal of misleading financial promotions before they reach consumers.
For retail forex and CFD traders, the speech reinforces that the FCA is actively policing both the visible and invisible layers of market integrity. The regulator's ongoing scrutiny of financial promotions is directly relevant to anyone choosing a broker regulated in the UK — firms making exaggerated claims about returns or downplaying CFD risk warnings face intervention before those adverts gain traction. Traders using FCA-authorised brokers benefit from this preventive posture, which sits alongside the more headline-grabbing enforcement actions such as the multi-million-pound fines and bans the FCA referenced in the same address.