FCA outlines its priorities and areas in which it plans to reduce the regulatory burden for firms.
By Rob Moulton, Nicola Higgs, Becky Critchley, and Charlotte Collins
On 25 March 2025, the FCA published its five-year strategy (Strategy), alongside the outcome of its review of retail conduct rules in light of the Consumer Duty. Together, these publications give a clear flavour of the regulator’s direction of travel at what has been a challenging and uncertain time. Both
The regulators have said they will not pursue their proposals on announcing enforcement investigations and on D&I.
By Rob Moulton, Nicola Higgs, Becky Critchley, Anna James, and Charlotte Collins
On 12 March 2025, the FCA and PRA made important announcements regarding the long-awaited outcomes on certain key policy proposals. The FCA published a letter addressed to the Treasury Select Committee and accompanying statement, while the PRA also published a letter to the Treasury Select Committee.
Speech focuses on the regulatory change agenda, and confirms that firms are no longer expected to have a Consumer Duty board champion.
By Rob Moulton, Nicola Higgs, Becky Critchley, and Charlotte Collins
On 27 February 2025, the FCA published a speech given by Nikhil Rathi, in which he talks about the FCA’s efforts to support the government’s growth agenda. This follows a difficult few months for the regulator, in which it has come under increasing pressure from the government and individual Parliamentary groups and committees, from various angles.
A Republican Congress and the incoming Trump administration may employ the CRA to quickly overturn recent rules that faced heavy criticism from the financial services industry.
By Jenny Cieplak, Zachary Fallon, Arthur Long, Parag Patel, Barrie VanBrackle, Stephen Wink, and Deric Behar
Every four years in American politics is an opportunity to turn the tables on the party in power. But leading up to and following an election that shifts control of the government
In this publication and podcast series, we explore some of the core focus areas for UK-regulated financial services firms in the year ahead.
In 2024, we saw disruption to the regulatory reform agenda as the unexpected timing of the general election impacted work and publication schedules. Now that the reform agenda is back on track and aligned to the new government’s plans for growth, we are likely to see improved progress on existing reforms as well as fresh initiatives in the pursuit of growth during 2025.
There is doubtless a strong focus on retail markets under the new government, but the UK’s competitiveness as a place to do business remains vital as improvements to the UK’s wholesale markets continue. ESG and AI continue to dominate across the sector as rapidly evolving areas that profoundly impact the regulatory landscape.
The proposals aim to drive more consistency in operational incident reporting and greater visibility in the use of material third-party services.
By Rob Moulton and Charlotte Collins
On 13 December 2024, the FCA and the PRA published linked Consultation Papers on operational incident and third-party reporting (FCA CP24/28 and PRA CP17/24). The consultations aim to create a structured framework for financial services firms to report operational incidents and material third-party relationships. The proposals will help standardise the information that the regulators receive and enable them to identify systemic problems related to incident and third-party risk management.
The FCA is approaching its design of the world’s first regulated private/public crossover market with a “private plus” rather than a “public minus” mindset.
By Mark Austin, Rob Moulton, James Inness, Anna Ngo, Frederick Gardner, and Johannes Poon
On 17 December 2024, the FCA launched a consultation on its proposed regulatory framework for the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES) (CP24/29). This consultation follows the publication of HM Treasury’s draft statutory
When the Edinburgh Reforms were announced on 9 December 2022, they were billed as an ambitious set of reforms. Two years on, we assess which of the measures have been completed, which remain outstanding, and whether they have delivered on the agenda set out.
We also reflect on the recent Mansion House announcements, which have reset the future of regulatory reform.
The regulator has significantly rowed back on aspects of the proposals following industry and government feedback.
By Andrea Monks, Rob Moulton, Nell Perks, Anna James, and Charlotte Collins
On 28 November 2024, the FCA published revised proposals for announcing enforcement investigations. The original consultation, launched in February 2024, proved to be one of the most controversial proposals put forward by the regulator and received an unprecedented response from industry and the government (for more detail on the original proposals, see this Latham blog post). The FCA has attracted a great deal of criticism since the launch of the first consultation, culminating in an evidence session before the House of Lords Financial Regulation Committee a few weeks ago, which made for uncomfortable viewing.
In light of the feedback received, the FCA has made some significant changes to its proposals, and acknowledges that it ought to have handled their communication better by signalling the proposals to the market in advance of their publication. The regulator also acknowledges the importance of considerations around its secondary objective relating to international competitiveness and growth in relation to these proposals.
The new regime will take effect on 1 January 2025, but will not diminish the responsibilities of financial services firms relying on the services of critical third parties.
By Rob Moulton, Fiona Maclean, Alain Traill, and Charlotte Collins
On 12 November 2024, the PRA, FCA, and Bank of England jointly published a Policy Statement (PRA PS16/24 and FCA PS24/16), setting out their final rules for critical third parties (CTPs). The regulators consulted on this framework in December