Neil Woodford, Woodford Investment Management to appeal £46m FCA fine

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that it is minded to fine Neil Woodford and his eponymous fund management firm, Woodford Investment Management (WIM), £5.9 million and £40 million respectively.  The regulator also wants to ban Mr Woodford from holding senior manager roles and managing funds for retail investors.

Both Mr Woodford and WIM have appealed the decision notices, published on August 5, to the Upper Tribunal.

“We strongly disagree with the FCA’s decision to pursue enforcement action against Neil Woodford and Woodford Investment Management (WIM) and intend to challenge it,” WIM said in a statement on its website.

However, it could be several years before the case is heard by the Upper Tribunal since, according to the most recent listings update, there are at least 15 cases ahead of Woodford that are yet to have a hearing date assigned. Compliance Corylated reported in November 2024 that there was a three-year wait for a hearing date at the Upper Tribunal.

Collapse

The Woodford Equity Income fund (WEIF) was suspended in June 2019 after the FCA said WIM and Woodford “made unreasonable and inappropriate investment decisions” between June 2018 and June 2019.

In a statement accompanying the decision notices, Steve Smart, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “Being a leader in financial services comes with responsibilities as well as profile. Mr Woodford simply doesn’t accept he had any role in managing the liquidity of the fund.

“The very minimum investors should expect is those managing their money make sensible decisions and take their senior role seriously. Neither Neil Woodford nor Woodford Investment Management did so, putting at risk the money people had entrusted them with.”

The value of the fund fell from a high of more than £10.1 billion in May 2017 to £3.6 billion at the time of its suspension.

The WEIF was wound up by its authorised corporate director, Link Fund Solutions, in October 2019. Mr Woodford has always maintained it was this action by Link that crystallised losses for the fundʼs 300,000 investors, not his investment decisions.

WIM repeated this in its statement today: “The FCA’s case focuses narrowly on the events leading up to suspension, ignoring the true cause of the investor losses: Link’s decision to liquidate the fund in October 2019. In the four months of the suspension, Mr Woodford was actively restructuring the fund. By the time Link announced the liquidation, the fund had over £1.6 billion of assets that could be liquidated within a week.”

The statement also name-checks Andrew Bailey — now governor of the Bank of England, but at the time FCA chief executive — three times. WIM claims Bailey was not only aware of Woodfordʼs plan to meet redemptions, but told the Treasury Committee in June 2019 that Link was accountable to the FCA for WEIF.

In April 2024, Link was censured by the FCA for its part in the collapse of WEIF and ordered to pay its investors £230 million in redress.

WIM said it had “great sympathy” for the investors, adding: “The appeal process will shed much-needed light on the events leading to and following [WEIFʼs] suspension, including the regulator’s role in those events.”

It is not clear from Companies House filings whether WIM could pay the £40 million fine. The FCA said its ability to enforce a fine will depend on the particular circumstances of the case “including what funds are available”.

WIM has a small company exemption for filing accounts under Section 477 of the Companies Act 2006. This exemption applies to companies with at least two of the following: turnover of £10.2 million or less; assets of £5.1 million or less, or 50 or fewer employees.

WIM declined to comment on its ability to pay the fine.

*This article was updated at 18:55 on August 5, 2025 to add that WIM had declined to comment in the final paragraph.