We enable a fair and thriving financial services market for the good of consumers and the economy.
We do this by:
- Regulating the conduct of approximately 50,000 businesses
- Prudentially supervising 48,000 firms
Our Head Office is based in London, and we have offices in Edinburgh and Leeds.
Firms and individuals must be authorised or registered by us to carry out certain activities.Before we grant authorisation, firms must demonstrate that they meet a range of requirements. We then supervise these firms to make sure they continue to meet our standards and rules after they’re authorised. If firms and individuals fail to meet these standards, we have a range of enforcement powers we can use.
We’ve been sorting out complaints between financial businesses and their customers since we were set up by Parliament in 2001. Our service is free for consumers, and every year well over 1 million people contact us with queries and complaints about all kinds of financial products and services, for example:
o bank accounts, payments and cards
o payment protection insurance (PPI)
o home, car, travel and other types of insurance
o loans and other credit, like car finance
o debt collection and repayment problems
o mortgages
o financial advice, investments and pensions
If a financial business and a consumer can’t resolve a complaint themselves, we’ll investigate and give an unbiased answer about what has happened. If we decide someone has been treated unfairly, we’ll use our legal powers to put things right.
When we decide a financial business has behaved unfairly, we tell them what they should do to put things right. And when we don’t uphold a complaint, we help give people a better understanding of why a business has acted in the way they have. Our work is often challenging, but it makes a real difference to people’s lives.
Working for us means you’ll get the satisfaction of helping others, and helping to make the financial sector fairer. Our staff tell us that they’re proud of the work they do, helping to put things right. What we do here makes a positive difference every day. Find out more about what we do, what it's like to work here and the roles we offer on our career pages, or by visiting our website.