Collateral UK was a peer to peer platform for property investing that fell into administration in April 2018. It was providing financial services, however, was not authorised by the FCA.
This was despite the FCA register stating it was authorised.
Peer 2 Peer Finance News quoted Andrew Bailey, FCA Chief Executive, saying in reference to Collateral UK, "It was on our interim permission register, which was set up for consumer credit firms, which included P2P”.
Regarding an earlier FCA investigation, Telegraph Money stated that it was discovered that a security flaw that made it possible for third parties to manipulate the FCA register information shown to consumers.
It was also reported that during 2018, there had been a six fold increase in the number of register-based complaints to the FCA - from 15 to 92, with Collateral UK accounting for 69 of those. BDO has been appointed to recover the £14.8 million secured against properties and an additional £1.7 million in jewellery and precious stones.
An annual report by the Financial Regulators Complaints Commissioner released on July 18, described the register as "difficult to understand and sometimes inaccurate" resulting in consumers believing "that they have more regulatory protections than they really do" - as reported by the FT.
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