FCA Plans to Take Action Against Hartley Pensions

The latest update from the FCA for you;

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has set out plans to take action against Hartley Pensions Limited and an individual involved at the firm.

Hartley was a Self-Invested Personal Pension operator, which went into administration in July 2022. The FCA alleges that Hartley provided it with false and misleading information and improperly withdrew and invested substantial amounts of customers’ pension funds, without their consent, to benefit an individual at the firm.

The FCA alleges that the individual dishonestly used the pension funds and made false representations to obtain money for a company that they owned. They then misled the FCA to conceal this misconduct.

The issued Warning Notices are not the FCA’s final decisions and there is a right to make representations to the Regulatory Decisions Committee. In the event that the FCA makes final decisions, it intends to make its findings public at the appropriate point, but it cannot provide any further detail beyond the Warning Notice Statement at this stage, including about any proposed sanctions.