The culmination of a three-year inquiry involving testimony from 175 individuals, the report highlights the FCA’s failure to protect consumers and small businesses from financial misconduct.

The inquiry, conducted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Investment Fraud and Fairer Financial Services, found the FCA to be slow and inadequate in its response to financial scandals, often doing “too little too late – or nothing” to prevent or punish alleged wrongdoing.

Bob Blackman MP, co-chair of the APPG, said the group has heard “tragic tales of regulatory failure” causing significant financial and emotional distress.

He said: “The FCA responded to the excoriating criticism it received about its poor performance by launching a transformation programme. Unfortunately, the testimony received by the APPG in response to its call for evidence indicates that this programme has been a failure.”

He continued: “The FCA’s deep-rooted cultural problems, described so forensically by the series of external reports, are still there — if they weren’t, the FCA’s handling of recent issues such as the Woodford, WealthTec and Philips Trust Corporation scandals would have been satisfactory.

“The report contains over 380 pages of analysis of the testimony provided by more than 170 individuals who kindly gave evidence. Those who did so included FCA employees, past and present. The report also contains insightful observations by an external panel from academia, consumer advocacy, financial journalism and trading standards.

“The human suffering caused by regulatory failure is catastrophic.”

The APPG dedicated its report to the memory of the late Ian Davis, a former investor in bonds issued by London Capital & Finance plc, an infamous investment scam for which the FCA was heavily criticised.

“The government has reasons for concern in that the trust deficit in financial services is acting as a brake on growth, the opposite of what any administration wants for the economy,” Mr Blackman said.

“Whether the FCA should be reformed or replaced is one of the key questions that the independent panel considered at length — their thoughts, and the evidence their thoughts were based on, will be there for everybody to read on 26th November.”

A spokesperson for the FCA said: “We sympathise with those who have lost out as a result of wrongdoing in financial services. However, we strongly reject the characterisation of the organisation.

“We have learned from historic issues and transformed as an organisation so we can deliver for consumers, the market and the wider economy.”