The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced on Friday that it’s planning to reform the regulatory regime for crowdfunding that could see the regulator introduce prescriptive after finding concerns about transparency, complexity and conflicts of interest in the current market.
The FCA has found it difficult for investors to compare crowdfunding platforms with each other, or to compare crowdfunding with other asset classes, “due to complex and often unclear product offerings.”
It’s also difficult for investors to assess the risks and returns of investing on a crowdfunding platform; that offerings do not always meet the requirement to be ‘clear, fair and not misleading’; and that the complex structures of some firms “introduce operational risks and/or conflicts of interest that are not being managed sufficiently,” the FCA says.
As a result, the FCA plans to propose new rules for the sector in the first quarter of 2017, including more prescriptive disclosure requirements; and for loan-based crowdfunding, in particular, it intends to consult on restrictions on cross-platform investment and extending mortgage-lending standards to loan-based platforms, among other measures.
“Our focus is ensuring that investor protections are appropriate for the risks in the crowdfunding sector while continuing to promote effective competition in the interests of consumers,” says Andrew Bailey, CEO of the FCA, in a statement. “Based on our findings to date, we believe it is necessary to strengthen investor protection in a number of areas. We plan to consult next year on new rules to address the issues we have identified.”
The FCA’s review of the crowdfunding market is ongoing and the proposals signalled on Friday aim to address some of its more immediate concerns. Further reforms could follow as that review continues, the FCA says: “If so, we will publish a second consultation proposing further rule changes.”