30 Cloned Financial Companies This Month Alone

We took another look today at the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) news and warnings online section https://www.fca.org.uk/news/search-results and noticed that there has been a distinct move towards cloning of authorised UK financial services firms.  So far in April alone, and it is only the 24th, there have been warnings issued about 30 firms.

Some firms are simply not authorised to offer financial services to UK clients but purporting to be authorised, others are going even further and ‘cloning’ an existing UK authorised firm in a bid to ‘con’ you.

What is cloning?

Trying to make an organisation, look, feel and trick you into believing you are dealing with the genuine firm.  They will mix factual details such as the genuine firm’s FCA authorisation number with false details such as address, telephone number etc.

e.g. Jupiter Fund Management.  There is a rogue firm out there offering a London telephone number, that is not authorised, but clearly trying to con investors into believing they are being contacted by the genuine, regulated and authorised firm, in this case Jupiter Fund Management PLC and Jupiter Asset Management Limited.  See the FCA warning example on this example: https://www.fca.org.uk/news/warnings/jupiter-fund-management-clone

What should you do if you are worried about cloning?

Take the FCA’s advice:

Only deal with financial firms that are authorised by the FCA, and check the Financial Services Register to ensure they are. It has information on firms and individuals that are, or have been, regulated by the FCA.

If you want to check a consumer credit firm that may not yet have been authorised by the FCA, please also check the Interim Permission Register.

If a firm does not appear on the Register but claims it does, contact the FCA’s Consumer Helpline on 0800 111 6768.