FCA Annual Report 2025/26: £5.6 Billion in Consumer Benefits, Record Scam Crackdowns and Lower Costs for Firms

The Financial Conduct Authority’s 2025/26 Annual Report sets out a year of enforcement action against financial crime, billions in estimated consumer benefits, and a push to reduce the regulatory burden on thousands of firms across the UK.

A Year in Numbers

Picture the scale of it: nearly 20,000 dodgy financial adverts pulled from the internet in a single year. That’s the reality behind the Financial Conduct Authority’s latest annual report, published this week, which lays out just how busy the regulator has been — and what it means for people in Kent who have a bank account, a pension, a mortgage, or savings tucked away somewhere.

The FCA, which oversees around 50,000 financial services firms across the UK, says it delivered an estimated £5.6 billion in benefits to consumers, firms and the wider economy during 2025/26. It’s a headline figure that covers everything from better-value financial products reaching consumers to reduced administrative costs for regulated businesses.

The post, shared on the FCA’s official account, directed followers to the full Annual Report and Accounts 2025/26 — the formal, audited document behind those claims.

Scams Shut Down, Courts Pursued

The enforcement numbers from the preceding year, 2024/25, give a sense of the machinery working behind that £5.6 billion figure. The FCA opened 965 financial crime supervision cases — a 15% rise on 2023/24 and a staggering 164% increase compared with 2021. It issued 37 Final Notices, charged 19 suspected individuals or entities, and secured 5 convictions linked to illegal financial promotions and scams, including those involving cryptoassets.

But perhaps the most striking figure is this: 19,766 non-compliant financial promotions were removed or amended in 2024/25. That’s up 97.5% on 2023, and roughly 3,500% higher than the equivalent figure from 2021. The FCA also cancelled 1,516 firm authorisations during the same period — a 20% increase on the previous year.

These aren’t abstract statistics. Each cancelled authorisation or removed promotion represents a potential fraud that didn’t reach a consumer’s inbox, social media feed, or doorstep.

The Safety Net Beneath It All

When firms do fail, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme — whose budget is approved by the FCA and the Prudential Regulation Authority — acts as the last line of defence. In 2025/26, the FSCS paid out £267 million to about 14,113 individual customers across claims covering deposits, insurance and investments. That’s real money returned to real people.

The FCA’s four strategic priorities going into 2026/27 are being a smarter regulator, supporting growth, helping consumers manage their financial lives, and fighting financial crime. The 2025/26 report is presented as evidence of progress against all four.

Questions Alongside the Claims

Not everyone takes the headline claims at face value. Some consumer advocates and parliamentary observers have questioned whether figures like “hundreds of thousands of consumers helped” or “tens of thousands of firms” with reduced costs are sufficiently evidenced. The specific numerical breakdowns behind those phrases are not clearly itemised in publicly available summary materials and remain unverified as exact counts.

It’s a fair challenge. Aggregate benefit figures are useful for accountability purposes, but they can obscure whether those gains are felt evenly — across regions, firm sizes, and consumer groups.

What It Means Closer to Home

For Kent residents, the FCA’s work isn’t distant Whitehall business. The regulator oversees the banks, insurers, mortgage brokers, financial advisers and credit providers that serve households and businesses across the county — from Folkestone to Faversham, Maidstone to Margate. Action against non-compliant promotions and unauthorised firms directly reduces the risk that a Kent resident will lose savings to a fraudulent investment scheme or an illegal lender operating online.

Local organisations such as Citizens Advice in Kent also work within the framework the FCA sets, using its rules and enforcement outcomes to help residents challenge mis-sold products or seek redress on unaffordable credit.

And if a firm you hold money with does collapse, the FSCS protection — up to £85,000 per person per authorised firm for eligible deposits — applies to Kent customers just as it does anywhere else in the country.

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Key Takeaways

• The FCA estimates it delivered £5.6 billion in benefits to consumers, firms and the economy in 2025/26, alongside enforcement action that included cancelling 1,516 firm authorisations and removing nearly 20,000 non-compliant financial promotions in 2024/25
• The Financial Services Compensation Scheme paid £267 million to around 14,113 customers in 2025/26, providing a financial safety net when authorised firms fail
• Some consumer advocates have questioned whether the FCA’s headline benefit claims are sufficiently evidenced and evenly distributed across regions and firm types

What This Means for Kent Residents

Kent households and businesses are directly affected by FCA regulation, as the authority oversees the banks, mortgage lenders, insurers and investment firms that most people in the county use daily. If you’re concerned about a financial promotion you’ve seen online or suspect you’ve been targeted by a scam, you can report it to the FCA directly through its consumer helpline or the dedicated ScamSmart service at fca.org.uk/scamsmart. For anyone who has lost money to an authorised firm that has since failed, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme offers protection of up to £85,000 per eligible deposit — and Kent residents can also seek free, independent guidance from Citizens Advice or the Money and Pensions Service if they need help understanding their rights or options.