It appears Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has intensified efforts to tighten its regulatory policies on the British financial market. Today, it’s flagging off Rockwell Investment Management, a company claiming it has been doing business in the country since 2000. However, the British regulator is not letting its guards down as it has warned the company to come for authorization.

The crackdown has also affected retail FX/CFDs brokers as two regulated brokers were closed within a single month.

Rockwell claims it has been operating for the past two decades on a discretionary note. According to the firm, it has been managing funds for charities, trusts, UK, and international private investors. But FCA insists that such services are the major ways scammers use to deceive investors. According to the regulator, some companies hide under the radar of managing funds to commit financial scams.

It stated that any firm that wants to carry out such business must be duly registered and supervised by the appropriate regulatory body.

Rockwell Investment needs appropriate authorization

FCA said it did not authorize Rockwell to carry out any investment management business in the UK. According to the regulator, Rockwell is carrying on its business without receiving appropriate authorization from the FCA to do so. As a result, the company would cease to do business unless it receives appropriate authorization from the regulator.

FCA focused on sanitizing the market

In recent months, the FCA has been engaged in a series of tasks to monitor the activities of trading and retail investment brokers. Apart from its usually crackdown on unregulated companies, FCA is also keeping its eyes on regulated firms that may cause customers to lose investment funds.

It is determined to offer protection to consumers, who may lose their invested amounts to both regulated and unregulated financial services providers.

According to FCA, the problem is not only with unregulated service providers. Even regulated providers can cause consumers and investors to lose the amounts of invested funds. So, the regulator is always watching both regulated and unregulated firms in the country.

Earlier in the year, FCA issued a letter to brokers and asset managers. According to the regulator, it’s going to undertake further regulatory and supervisory tasks in important sections it has identified. The regulator wants to make sure that the asset managers and brokers disclose all the ensuring costs to their customers.

In January, FCA reported that Rockwell was promoting their services and implied that its services are under the U.K. regulatory body. But, according to FCA, this is not the case in the real sense of it.

Some asset management portfolios are scam

FCA said that the discretionary portfolios of some asset managers are pension scams. And some wealth managers take unreasonably high investment risks with their clients’ funds, which leads to financial hardship to the clients.

The regulator also stated that it has seen a number of incidents where the supposedly regulated firm collapsed completely, which affected the consumers in both financial and emotional levels. According to FCA, it’s poised to sanitize the industry and make sure the funds of consumers are protected.