P2P bridger warned after interim permission mix-up

P2P bridger warned after interim permission mix-up




A peer-to-peer firm has been victim to a rude awakening as it found itself blacklisted by the Financial Conduct Authority.

A peer-to-peer firm has been victim to a rude awakening as it found itself blacklisted by the Financial Conduct Authority..

TheBridgeCrowd got in contact with the FCA after stumbling across a warning alert, which claimed it was illegally stating it was regulated by the body. 

According to David Cross, FCA press representative, TheBridgeCrowd claimed on their website that it was FCA regulated and had the body’s logo on its website, “which is a copyright issue in its own right”.  

The body was unsuccessful in its attempts to contact the platform to rectify the issue.

On the 29th of January, the FCA launched a warning alert about TheBridgeCrowd saying: “We believe this firm has been claiming to be regulated by us when in fact it is not."

“...some firms act without our authorisation and some knowingly run scams like share fraud.”


The alert continued: “This firm is not authorised by us, but it has falsely claimed to be regulated by us.”

TheBridgeCrowd’s website on the 29th of Jan 2014 at 10pm 

 


TheBridgeCrowd got in contact with the FCA and explained that they had applied for interim permission and therefore understood that they were FCA authorised. 

The FCA clarified that the P2P market isn’t regulated until April 2014 and that even though the platform had interim permission they would still not be fully regulated until the deadline. 

The firm has since taken down the logo and the claim that they are regulated by the FCA. The trade body has respectively taken down the warning alert. 

On reflecting on the mishap, David Cross said: “It's quite a nice news story because it ended up just being a misunderstanding.” 

Click here to find out more about FCA interim permissions. 

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