Disgraced fund manager Neil Woodford and his now-defunct investment firm have been fined a combined £46 million by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for mismanaging the Woodford Equity Income Fund, which collapsed in 2019 and left hundreds of thousands of retail investors out of pocket.
Woodford, once hailed as one of Britain’s most successful stockpickers, has also been banned from holding any senior role in the City, with the FCA declaring him “not fit and proper” to manage money or lead financial institutions.
The FCA is seeking to impose a £5.9 million personal fine on Woodford, while Woodford Investment Management (WIM), where he is majority shareholder, faces a £40 million penalty. The regulator said the size of the fine reflected Woodford’s “extremely prominent profile” and the lasting damage done to public trust in retail investment.
The penalties remain provisional, pending Woodford’s appeal to the Upper Tribunal, where he is expected to challenge both the findings and the size of the fines. In a defiant statement, Woodford insisted he strongly disagreed with the decision and said the tribunal would “shed much-needed light” on the FCA’s own conduct in the affair.
At the peak of his career, Woodford managed over £15 billion in assets, having built a reputation at Invesco Perpetual before launching WIM in 2014. His flagship fund, the Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF), was marketed to retail investors seeking stability and income — yet collapsed in spectacular fashion when a wave of redemption requests forced the fund to suspend in June 2019.
When the fund was finally liquidated, investors received £1 billion less than the value of their holdings on the day of suspension. The FCA found that between July 2018 and June 2019, Woodford and WIM made a series of “unreasonable and inappropriate investment decisions”, including selling off liquid assets and doubling down on illiquid, harder-to-sell investments — a strategy that critically undermined the fund’s ability to meet investor withdrawals.
Despite his high profile and responsibility, Woodford refused to accept any role in managing the fund’s liquidity, according to the FCA.
“The very minimum investors should expect is that those managing their money make sensible decisions and take their senior role seriously,” said Steve Smart, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA.
“Neither Neil Woodford nor Woodford Investment Management did so, putting at risk the money people had entrusted them with.”
Woodford’s fall was also marked by reports of personal extravagance. In the four years leading up to the collapse, he and his co-founder Craig Newman extracted £98 million in dividends from the business. Woodford used the proceeds to fund a collection of luxury cars, a 423-hectare Cotswolds estate, a £6.35 million Devon holiday home, and even a stable of horses.
Campaign groups, supported by MPs and financial watchdogs, have renewed calls for the forfeiture of Woodford’s CBE, which he was awarded in 2013 for services to the UK economy. Critics say it is no longer appropriate given the scale of investor harm caused by his actions.
The FCA noted that while Woodford’s conduct was negligent rather than dishonest, his failure to safeguard investor funds had serious consequences and warranted strong enforcement action.
The Woodford scandal remains one of the most high-profile failures in UK retail fund management. More than 300,000 investors were affected, and while some compensation has been secured through separate settlements — including a £230 million redress scheme agreed last year with Link Fund Solutions — many remain frustrated by the slow pace of regulatory action.
The FCA’s latest ruling may mark a turning point, but with Woodford vowing to fight the outcome in the tribunal, the saga is far from over.
The financial community will be watching closely as the case progresses — not only for justice for investors, but for what it signals about accountability, enforcement, and the future of trust in UK financial services.
