UK FCA updates its enforcement investigation guide for cases initiated from June 2025 onward. The guide comes into force on 3 June and will apply to all new investigations, using revised public-disclosure criteria that include an option for anonymous launch notices when specified conditions are met.
UK Continues to Develop Its Financial-Sector Regulations
We recall that the UK is making serious efforts to update its financial regulations, and here we are witnessing another such move. In particular, the authorities have presented fresh updates to their Enforcement Guide, describing this as a step aimed at strengthening transparency and trust without harming procedural fairness.
The most important change is a new approach to publishing information on launched investigations. Previously, FCA could make such actions public only in cases that met the “exceptional circumstances” standard – in particular when there was a clear risk to investors or a matter of significant public interest.
Now they implement a mechanism for so-called anonymous announcements, where the public must be informed about regulatory actions but naming the parties could affect the progress of the case or create unnecessary pressure on participants. In other words, this is an attempt to take a more proactive stance and to make investigations more transparent without direct reputational risk for the parties involved, which is especially important if the investigation ends positively.
Why it’s so important? You may notice that bad news spreads much more widely than good ones, while retractions rarely gain the same visibility as accusations. One need not look far for an example – take the Bybit incident. Almost everyone in the crypto industry, and many outside it, heard of it, for it was the largest crypto hack in history.
Yet how many people know that the Bybit hack was not a direct breach of the platform itself but a classic victim of a third-party exploit and that this incident does not negate the fact that the platform remains one of the most reliable and secure in the industry? Moreover, many may not be aware that Bybit restored its reserves in the next few days after the incident and, restored liquidity on the platform within a month – a record recovery time.
However, how many companies and platforms have failed to recover from reputational damage and the financial losses it caused, even after an official refutation? Many – and to avoid exactly such situations FCA is introducing this anonymous announcement mechanism.
Conclusion
The Enforcement Guide updates clearly seek to strike a balance between transparency and accountability, and on paper, this indeed looks fairly balanced. We will await the first examples of anonymous announcements to understand how obvious or not the subjects of an investigation become and whether this initiative is implemented as intended.
