London Capital & Finance censured over unfair marketing promotions

London Capital & Finance (LCF) has been censured by the FCA for its unfair and misleading financial promotions of minibonds between 2016 and 2018 - using, for instance, comparison sites that appeared independent but which were actually "being used by it to drive traffic to its website".

By Neasa MacErlean

The Serious Fraud Office is also "considering carefully" a case against LCF and "those responsible for running it", according to the regulator's announcement, which explains that they "may have been involved in knowingly defrauding bondholders". The Financial Conduct Authority accepts that, in this context, the financial promotions are "secondary issues" but it, nevertheless, sees it as "important" to explain the failings.