Dame Elizabeth Gloster has written to the UK's Financial Conduct Authority to say that the current pandemic has frustrated her plans to complete her investigation of its handling of the LCF fiasco by the deadline of 10 July. The report will now come on 30 September. Meanwhile, LCF bondholders are accusing the regulator of improper delaying tactics.

London Capital and Finance raised £237 million from 11,605 bondholders before collapsing in January last year. Only 159 have qualified for compensation from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. The Financial Conduct Authority - which activist Gina Miller has accused of being "asleep at the wheel" - and the Serious Fraud Office are investigating.

Commenting on the delay, Mel Stride MP, the Chair of the Treasury Committee, said: “The previous Treasury Committee pressed the need for an investigation into events at LCF. When the Treasury rightly used its powers to direct the FCA to commission a review last year, my predecessor urged the regulator and the Treasury to ensure that the investigation was conducted and report published as soon as possible.

“As Dame Elizabeth has said, the decision to delay may cause anguish to those who invested in LC&F. We will want to get to the bottom of what role the FCA had in the delay when we next take evidence from them.”

Nobody blames Dame Elizabeth for the fact that her committee has struggled to see witnesses and gather documents during 'lockdown,' but she took a very lengthy time over her investigation - some say on purpose - even before February. She has, moreover, written to the FCA to say that this was mostly due to “the time it was taking the FCA to progress document and information requests” that her team was making of it.

In the letter Dame Elizabeth writes: "I wrote to you in December to record my concerns over the time it was taking the FCA to progress document and information requests submitted by my team (most of which were submitted in September/early October). On a related point, I understand that your team has contacted my team this morning to highlight that they have identified various datasets that were not searched (this appears to have been an error) for the purposes of identifying material relevant to my investigation and, accordingly, we will be provided with further data for review over the next week. I do not think it is disputed that the FCA’s delays and difficulties in providing documents and information have had a significant impact on the timetable for my investigation."

Dame Elizabeth is at pains to stress that she does not suspect the FCA of intentional delays or deliberate non-co-operation. If not for the delays, however, she claims that she would now be "finalising the report."

LCF issued mini-bonds to the investors - not normally a regulated activity. However, when a regulated firm approves a promotion for mini-bonds it must ensure that said promotion is in line with the FCA's rules that dictate that it must be fair, clear and not misleading.