About

Mark Francis is the FCA’s director of Wholesale and Unauthorised Business Investigations. Sitting within the enforcement division, Mark’s directorate conducts forensic investigations into regulatory breaches and criminal offences by firms and individuals operating in the wholesale arena, as well as those carrying on regulated activities without authorisation, in breach of the general prohibition. Typical cases include insider dealing, market manipulation, systems and controls failings, and consumer scams such as boiler rooms.

Mark joined the then FSA, in 2009 focusing on unauthorised business investigations and became Head of the Unauthorised Business Department in 2013. He led some of the department’s largest cases dealing with many types of unauthorised investment schemes. Mark moved to Wholesale Enforcement in 2016 where he worked on a variety of enforcement investigations including insider dealing, market abuse and misconduct in wholesale firms. Mark became director of Wholesale and Unauthorised Business Investigations in 2018. Mark is a qualified accountant and spent 12 years in practice at BDO LLP before joining the regulator. During his career in practice he specialised in forensic financial investigations particularly providing investigative and asset management expertise to a range public and private sector clients.