Norway FSA Warns of Choice Finance UK Clone of FCA-Registered Firm

Key Takeaways

• The Norway Financial Supervisory Authority (Finanstilsynet) has published a warning about "Choice Finance UK," which the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has identified as a clone of an FCA-registered firm.
• Compliance teams should treat the entity as a likely fraud vehicle and update screening and client-protection controls accordingly.

Deep Dive

The notice is a warning rather than a rule change, and it carries no new regulatory obligations. It republishes an alert originally issued by the FCA, which states that choicefinanceuk.co.uk is impersonating a legitimate, FCA-registered firm. In a clone-firm scheme, fraudsters copy the name, firm reference number, or contact details of an authorized entity to appear credible and solicit investments or personal data. The Norwegian warning shows that the threat is being treated as cross-border and relevant to Norwegian consumers and institutions.

The source content is limited. It gives the entity name, the issuing country (United Kingdom), the document type (warning), and a link to the FCA notice. It does not specify the legitimate firm being cloned, the products offered, associated domains beyond the FCA link, or any deadlines. Compliance teams should therefore review the full FCA warning directly and not rely on this summary for identifiers. No response deadlines or reporting requirements apply, but the notice is dated 2026-09-02, so prompt action is advisable.

Recommended actions include: (1) adding "Choice Finance UK" and the associated domain to internal watchlists, adverse media screening, and sanctions or fraud-typology lists; (2) screening customer and counterparty bases, as well as payment flows, for links to the entity or domain; (3) reviewing recent transaction monitoring alerts for payments to unfamiliar UK-based "investment" or "finance" recipients; (4) verifying any UK counterparty claiming FCA authorization through the official FCA Register, using contact details taken from the Register and not from the firm's own materials; and (5) alerting fraud, customer service, and relationship management teams to the scheme.

The risk impact is moderate. Direct exposure arises if customers send funds to the clone, which could result in authorized push payment fraud, complaints, reimbursement pressure, and reputational harm. There is also AML exposure if accounts are used to receive or move proceeds. Institutions should consider consumer awareness communications, file suspicious activity reports where indicators are found, and share intelligence with relevant authorities. Because the available details are thin, teams should monitor for updates from the FCA and Finanstilsynet.

Source: Norway Financial Supervisory Authority