FOI request reveals only one enforcement investigation by FCA in 2025
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) opened only one enforcement investigation into mortgage fraud in 2025, according to new Freedom of Information data.
The 2025 figure is down from the three to four cases per year recorded across 2022–2024, while the total number of FCA mortgage fraud investigations since 2018 now stands at 18.
Thirdfort, which issued the FOI request, said the figures raise questions about whether regulators are keeping pace with a rapidly evolving threat.
In March, the Home Office published its Fraud Strategy 2026–2029 in which it acknowledged that fraud has become more digital, global and technologically advanced. It also committed £31 million to a new Online Crime Centre, led by the Home Office and the NCA.
Thirdfort says the apparent drop in enforcement activity coincides with growing evidence that mortgage fraud, and fraud more generally, is increasing and becoming harder to detect.
It points out that Experian’s Q4 2025 Fraud Index found that mortgages were the only lending product to record an increase in the period while Cifas’s Fraudscape 2026 report found that AI-enabled document forgery and synthetic identities are making fraud across lending products harder to detect.
Not reflecting the true scale
Olly Thornton-Berry, co-founder and CEO of Thirdfort, said: “One FCA investigation in an entire year is a striking number, and we don’t think it reflects the true scale of the problem. The FCA is one piece of a wider enforcement picture – the NCA, the SFO and local police forces all play a role – but the direction of travel is concerning. Fraud is getting faster, more convincing and harder to detect, and AI is accelerating that shift.
“The government’s new fraud strategy is a step forward, and it’s right to invest in the infrastructure needed to tackle this. But enforcement action alone will never be enough when fraudsters can generate convincing fake identities and documents. The professionals handling property transactions need technology that can keep pace with threats that are evolving in real time.”
