Therese Chambers and Steve Smart, joint executive directors of enforcement and market oversight

When we published our plans earlier in the year to increase the focus, pace and transparency of our enforcement investigations, it was the last of those which we received the most feedback on. We have heard that feedback and we are making significant changes in response.

We've published the second phase of our consultation. We're providing data, case-studies and more detail on the public interest test. All this should give firms greater clarity on how we would decide to announce an investigation.

Among the changes we’re proposing: the public interest test we would use to weigh up whether to announce now includes an explicit consideration of the potential negative impact on a firm, as well as the potential to seriously disrupt public confidence in the market.

We have also proposed giving firms 10 business days' notice to make representations ahead of any announcement, rather than the 1 day on which we initially consulted. If we do decide to announce, firms will then have an additional 48 hours' notice before publication.

We want industry's views on how transparency could work in practice. We will continue to meet with firms, trade associations, consumer groups and the legal community, and only once we’ve heard your views will we decide whether to implement these proposals. Our Board hopes to make a final decision on the proposals in the first three months of next year.

We’ve published a joint call for input (CfI) with the Financial Ombudsman Service on how to modernise the redress system, so it better serves consumers and provides greater stability for firms to invest and innovate.

To prevent the escalation of issues that can result in mass complaints and create significant redress liabilities for firms, we will also improve how we work with the Ombudsman, and with industry and consumer groups, through the Wider Implications Framework.

Respond to the call for input by 30 January 2025.

We, alongside the Bank of England and Prudential Regulation Authority confirmed our final rules to oversee the resilience of services critical third parties provide to firms. Disruption or the failure of a third party could affect consumers and firms. It could even threaten financial stability or confidence in the UK financial system.

Key to these rules is promoting effective, transparent and timely information-sharing and support to firms and regulators, if a critical third party suffers a major incident. The new rules do not change firms' responsibility for resilience against disruptions, even when they rely on third parties, in line with our existing operational resilience requirements. Strengthening resilience and supporting market stability will ensure the UK remains a safe and attractive place to do business.

Regulators have worked together and engaged extensively with industry to develop this regime. The new rules closely align with international standards and similar regimes in other jurisdictions. 

The final rules come into effect on 1 January 2025, with the Treasury to decide which third parties will be designated, based on advice from regulators in the coming months.

We're a partner for growth and we support the Chancellor’s vision for achieving it. Our regulation enables a fair and thriving financial services sector that allows people to spend, save and invest and supports companies to expand and grow.

Earlier this month the Chancellor gave a speech at Mansion House. In response to the speech, we have published updates on a number of the issues raised:

• Environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings 
• Advice Guidance Boundary Review
• National payment strategy
• Modernising the redress system

We will work quickly with the Government, industry, consumer groups and other interested parties as we deliver this important work. When it comes to growth, regulation is one part of the picture. We know there’s more to do but we are committed to playing our part. You can read more on our response and our work to support growth.

We’re seeking feedback on proposals to extend the time firms have to respond to motor finance complaints where non-discretionary commission was involved. We previously extended the time firms have to respond to motor finance complaints involving a discretionary commission arrangement.

Firms are likely to receive a high volume of complaints in response to a recent Court of Appeal judgment. Our proposed extension would allow firms more time to handle complaints efficiently and effectively and help prevent disorderly, inconsistent and inefficient outcomes for consumers and firms.

This month we published our regulatory framework for firms operating pensions dashboard services (PDS).

Our framework is proportionate for the first iteration of PDS, designed to ensure that PDSs can be platforms where consumers positively engage with their pensions safely and confidently.

We published the rules now, to allow firms to consider and prepare their prospective business models, service design, research and testing well in advance of our gateway opening for applications for the new permission. We will give industry advance notice of the gateway opening, accompanied by the finalised application forms.

We welcomed the first industry-led Project Guardian report on tokenisation in the asset management sector, delivered through Project Guardian’s asset and wealth management workstream.

It is an international collaboration of industry and regulators, led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, that explores the use of fund and asset tokenisation. We are a member of Project Guardian’s policymaker group focused on the asset and wealth management workstream.

In the report, firms set out an ambitious, phased vision for the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT) in asset management.

Read more about the report and our future work.

We've set out our insights and observations on how financial firms responded to the CrowdStrike incident of 19 July 2024 and their preparedness to respond to future incidents.

We encourage firms to consider the lessons learned, improving their ability to effectively respond and recover from disruptions. Incidents like CrowdStrike highlight the importance of firms continuing to strengthen their operational resilience, minimising harm to consumers and markets, in line with our existing rules coming into effect on 31 March 2025.

We launched our first competition to fund research into how regulation can support national growth. This follows a review of recent literature which found significant gaps in the available research.

Applicants should submit research proposals that focus on areas the FCA can influence, such as: 

• growth and productivity of the UK financial services sector
• the UK financial services sector’s international competitiveness
• supporting the UK’s economy and considering regulatory impacts

We will award each winner up to £30,000 to help complete their research proposal. Applications are now open and the deadline for entries is midnight, Sunday 15 December.

Awareness of crypto also rose with 93% of those asked saying they had heard about it. The average value of crypto held by people increased from £1,595 to £1,842.

Alongside the research, we also published a blog setting out the outcomes of our earlier crypto roundtables and an indicative roadmap of key dates for developing and introducing the UK’s crypto regime.

The roadmap sets out a series of consultations. This approach aims to make policy development transparent and help people engage by making the process more manageable and flexible for all.

We continue to remind people crypto is currently largely unregulated and high-risk.

We’ve published a joint consultation with the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) on reforming the remunerations regime.

The changes will remove unnecessary duplication of rules between the regulators, streamline the regime for firms and further strengthen the reputation and competitiveness of the UK banking sector.

Respond to the consultation by 13 March 2025.

On 25 November 2024, following feedback from our consultation, we published our Final Guidance for firms enabling firms to implement a risk-based approach to payments. This guidance helps firms understand how to apply the new legislation on payment delays, which allows them to delay processing an authorised push payment (APP) transaction where they have reasonable grounds to suspect fraud or dishonesty.

This guidance should give firms greater confidence when implementing the amended regulations and aims to balance the need to tackle APP fraud, while reducing disruption to legitimate payments.

The MiFID Organisational Regulation (MiFID Org Reg) is EU law we have adopted which contains key conduct, systems and controls obligations for firms, particularly investment firms.

Following the Treasury’s announcement to lift requirements from legislation into the FCA’s rulebook, we are consulting on proposals for transferring the rules without policy changes.

Please respond to the consultation paper (CP) using our online response form or by emailing cp24-24@fca.org.uk by 28 February 2025.

We have published a Discussion Paper on improving the UK MiFID transaction reporting regime. We are looking for feedback on:

• the benefits of simplification against the cost of change and divergence
• the scope of firms and instruments under our requirements
• the content of transaction reports
• instrument reference data

This discussion will be of interest to UK MiFID investment firms, trading venues, ARMs and firms authorised under AIFMD or UCITS. We are asking for feedback by 14 February 2025.

Bringing together industry, academics, regulators, technologists, and consumer representatives, we will host an AI Sprint at our London office on 29 and 30 January 2025. This AI Sprint will help inform our regulatory approach to AI and how we can create the right environment for growth and innovation. Applications for the AI Sprint are now open.

We also invite all stakeholders to have their say on the future of AI in UK financial services through an online feedback platform. We look forward to hearing your views on the most transformative use cases, how our current framework works and how we may need to adapt in the future.

The third edition of our joint survey with the Bank of England on AI in financial services found 75% of firms are using AI and 10% more plan to do so in the next 3 years.

The report looks at current and future projected uses, including foundation models and large language models (LLMs).

Our latest data shows 98.5% of authorisation applications were determined within statutory deadlines in Q2.

We are continuing to make it quicker and easier to apply for authorisation, while maintaining high standards to protect customers and bolster the reputation of the UK market.

Our data shows we received 322 new whistleblowing reports, containing 910 allegations in total, between July and September 2024.

We closed 530 whistleblowing reports, this included:

• significant action to manage harm in 28 reports (5%) – (enforcement action, a section 166 skilled person report, or restricting a firm’s permissions or an individual’s approval)
• action to reduce harm in 251 reports (47%) – (writing to or visiting a firm, asking a firm for information, or asking a firm to attest to complying with our rules)
• 206 reports (39%) informing our work, including harm prevention, but no direct action

Our news and publications alerts keep you up to date with our press releases, speeches, statements, consultations, guidance, notices and decisions.

We are working together with the Bank of England and alongside industry to transform data collection in the UK financial sector and to reduce firm burden. On Thursday 5 December the programme will be hosting a Town Hall to provide the latest programme updates and to share a demo of the new firm Portal ‘My FCA’, which brings together our regulatory reporting systems.

To find out more about the event and register your interest in attending, please visit the Transforming Data Collection website.