The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) opened just one enforcement investigation into mortgage fraud in 2025, according to new Freedom of Information (FOI) data obtained by Thirdfort.

The intelligent client due diligence (CDD) platform’s FOI data shows there have been 18 FCA mortgage fraud investigations since 2018.

The number of investigations fell to one last year, compared with three in 2024, four in 2023, three in 2022, none in 2021, none in 2020, five in 2019 and two in 2018.

Thirdfort said last year’s figures are close to the near-zero activity last seen during the pandemic, adding that the data raises questions about how regulators are responding to the evolving nature of mortgage fraud risks.

HARDER TO DETECT

The firm said the apparent drop in enforcement activity comes as evidence suggests mortgage fraud, and fraud more broadly, is becoming more sophisticated and harder to detect.

Thirdfort pointed to Experian’s Q4 2025 Fraud Index, which found mortgages were the only lending product to record an increase in fraud during the period, despite a broader decline across five other categories analysed.

The firm also highlighted Cifas’s Fraudscape 2026 report, which found AI-enabled document forgery and synthetic identities are making fraud harder to detect across financial services, with criminals increasingly able to fabricate convincing profiles and fake documents at speed and scale.

Olly Thornton-Berry, co-founder and chief executive officer 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 National Crime Agency (NCA), the Serious Fraud Office (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.”

BECOMING MORE DIGITAL

The findings come as the government’s Fraud Strategy 2026–2029, published in March, acknowledged that fraud has become more digital, global and technologically advanced.

The strategy commits £31m to a new Online Crime Centre, led by the Home Office and the NCA, designed to bring together expertise from law enforcement, financial institutions and technology firms to tackle organised fraud.

Thornton-Berry added: “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.”