Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, former CEO of the FCA, is due to be grilled today by MPs about regulation of the £236m failed mini-bond firm London Capital & Finance. 

Mr Bailey is due to give oral evidence to the Treasury Committee about the FCA's regulation of LCF which collapsed, hitting nearly 12,000 investors.

Because LCF was only partly regulated many victims have been warned they may never be compensated.

The evidence session will be broadcast live on the Parliament Live TV website at 3.30pm.

Mr Bailey apologised in December to LCF mini-bond holders that regulatory changes introduced after he became FCA CEO in 2016 were not made fast enough to protect LCF clients.

In December the FCA announced that it will introduce nine major reforms following publication of the damning Gloster Report into its handling of the collapse. 

The report, carried out by former judge Dame Elizabeth Gloster, found the FCA failed to protect LCF investors. It uncovered major weaknesses in regulation.

LCF ripped off more than 11,600 investors by encouraging them to invest £236m in non-regulated ‘mini-bonds’ before it collapsed. It had both regulated and non-regulated arms. Regulation mostly covered the marketing of the bonds but the bonds themselves were mainly unregulated.

Mr Bailey left the FCA for his new role at the Bank of England in March 2020 but much of the regulation of LCF took place while he was in charge of the FCA. 

As of December, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme had paid out just over £50.9m in compensation to 2,584 LCF bondholders who held 3,440 LCF bonds. 

The FSCS is continuing to review other claims but issues remain over mini-bond investments which may have been outside the scope of regulation at the time they were made.

The FCA has now clamped down on the marketing of mini-bond investments.