FCA: Consumer investments data review April - September 2021

The FCA summarises its work to tackle consumer harm in the investment market between 1 April 2021 and 30 September 2021. The FCA's third consumer investments data review shows how it is being more assertive in tackling harm, including by stopping a quarter of new firms from entering the market. It also provides useful insights into specific areas of its Consumer Investment Strategy, particularly higher-risk investments and scams. ##Key findings include:## * The FCA found that scam enquiries remained consistently high between April and September 2021. It had over 16,400 enquiries about possible scams in the period, approximately a one third increase on enquiries over the same period in 2020 (12,400). * The top 4 types of scams reported were boiler rooms, cryptocurrency scams, FCA-impersonation scams and recovery rooms. * The FCA saw an increase in reports about possible cryptocurrency scams, both to its Supervision Hub (up 14% on the previous 6 months) and its ScamSmart website (up 49%). The FCA Cryptoasset team in Supervision opened over 300 cases relating to potential unregistered cryptoasset businesses in this period, many of which are likely to be involved in scams.