FCA imposes restrictions on Dolfin Financial

The UK regulator has forced wealth manager Dolfin Financial to cease its activity citing "a number of serious concerns around the way that Dolfin operates its business."

The FCA's restrictions will stop Dolfin from carrying on any regulated activity and prevent it from reducing the value of its assets, or any of the client money or custody assets it holds, without the consent of the FCA.

The FCA says it has identified a number of serious concerns around the way that Dolfin operates its business, including the firm's Tier 1 investor visa business activities and financial crime controls.

The FCA has been working with Dolfin while it took steps to try and address these concerns, including imposing voluntary restrictions on its regulated activities on 24 December 2019, and commissioning a Skilled Persons Review.

However, following the conclusion of the Skilled Persons Review and developments that have taken place since, the FCA says it has determined that it is appropriate in the interests of protecting the integrity of the UK financial system to stop the firm from carrying out regulated activities and has imposed these restrictions.

The FCA emphasised that clients will not be able to trade, withdraw or transfer monies held by Dolfin while the restrictions are in place, and that the duration of these restrictions is currently unknown.

The regulator said it was working with Dolfin "while it took steps to try and address these concerns, including imposing voluntary restrictions on its regulated activities."