Is the FCA catching on to its AFrO and AFO powers?

My colleague Ben Ticehurst, a Director in our UK Government Investigations and White Collar team, recently shared a timely insight on increased use by the Financial Conduct Authority of Account Freezing Orders (“AFrOs”) and Account Forfeiture Orders (“AFOs”) on our Anticorruption Blog.  He reports on the recent decision for the FCA to secure its first AFO, a tool used for asset recovery under Part 5 of Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, for £2 million against QPay Europe Limited.  Until recently , AFO and AFrO powers, granted by the Criminal Finances Act 2017, have mainly been used by the National Crime Agency, regional police forces, and His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (“HMRC”). However, given the FCA’s stated intent in their recently published three year strategy to use their “enforcement and intervention powers more actively”, these measures should now be firmly on the radar of compliance teams and MLROs of FCA-regulated entities. 
Given the relevance to readers of this blog, we wanted to call this to your attention – check out Ben’s full post here:  Account Freezing and Forfeiture Orders: is the FCA waking up to its investigative powers?    | The Anticorruption Blog