We’ve published 2 further Consumer Duty good and poor practice reports, to help firms embed the Duty and provide more clarity on our expectations.

Read our review of firms’ approaches to:

• Consumer Duty Board Reports 
• Complaints and root cause analysis 

These findings show how firms are tracking consumer outcomes, acting on insight and giving senior management the means to challenge and drive the improvements needed to deliver the Duty.

We hope the findings also give industry the extra insight it has asked for and show how we’re using the information we request to help firms of all sizes meet the Duty.

Following industry feedback, we’ve also published our Consumer Duty focus areas, setting out the priorities under the Duty into 2025.

We have set out plans to simplify the information supplied to retail investors to boost confidence and drive investment.

Under the current rules, introduced across Europe when the UK was in the EU, people buying investments like investment funds are supplied with standardised documents covering prescribed information.

In practice these documents were often complex, unclear and not tailored to consumer needs. This could put people off investing or lead them to make less informed decisions.

We propose replacing this with a simpler and flexible system which is tailored to the UK. Firms will be given more choice about how, what and when they communicate.

Under the proposals, new product information requirements would help consumers understand the products they are buying while giving firms flexibility to innovate.

Please respond to this paper by 20 March 2025.

We’ve published a Discussion Paper on the admissions & disclosures and market abuse regime for cryptoassets.

This is part of a series of publications designed to help us shape the UK’s crypto regime.

It sets out proposals for firms to introduce strong controls that prevent harm. We are also suggesting certain firms, like authorised crypto trading platforms, share information with each other to help stop suspected market abuse.

We encourage industry to respond to the paper, sharing its expertise and helping us shape the rules. We want industry to take the lead in developing new ways of disclosing important information to make sure people understand the risks before buying crypto.

You have until 14 March 2025 to have your say.

On 29 November 2024, we published our updated Financial Crime Guide (the Guide). The financial sector plays a vital role in reducing financial crime, with firms being the first line of defence. The updated Guide aims to help firms understand our expectations, assess the adequacy of their financial crime systems and controls and remedy deficiencies. The changes also reflect the areas that firms wanted additional guidance on. These include sanctions, proliferation financing, transaction monitoring and cryptoassets.

We will continue to engage with firms for further feedback on how we can improve the Guide.

Please do consider our proposals and send us your comments by 24 January 2025.

On 31 December 2024, we will be replacing the Temporary Transitional Power (TTP) direction with a new derivatives trading obligation (DTO). The TTP was used post-Brexit to avoid disruption to UK markets from conflicting UK and EU trading obligations in the absence of mutual equivalence.

The new direction maintains the outcomes of the original TTP direction. It follows our consultation in July on the proposals, which received unanimous support. The direction will automatically adjust as the UK and the EU trading mandates change to ensure it only applies to instruments with conflicting obligations.

A bond consolidated tape (CT) collates data on transactions, such as prices and volumes, bringing together data on trades executed on trading venues as well as those arranged over-the-counter.

We are starting the process of appointing a bond CT provider. On 3 December 2024 we published a Concession Notice setting out our next steps for running the tender process.

Our regulatory perimeter is set by Parliament and Government through legislation and determines what we do and do not regulate. We regularly review our perimeter to consider how to respond to new and evolving concerns, and engage with the Treasury where we think changes are needed to prevent significant harm. The latest version of our perimeter report sets out these specific issues and what we are doing in response.

The latest update provides our view on 30 different areas. It includes updates on international competitiveness and growth, investment trust cost disclosure, sports and non-financial spread-betting, exclusion relating to trustees and the debt advice landscape.

The National Storage Mechanism (NSM) is our free-to-use online archive of company information, enabling users to access and download information about issuers. The NSM plays an important role in market transparency.

Following our consultation paper we are setting out improvements to data quality to make it easier for NSM users to find information.

We want to enable the safe and responsible use of AI in UK financial markets, driving growth, competitiveness and innovation in the sector. As part of our effort to deepen our understanding of AI and its potential impact on financial services, our team is undertaking research on AI bias.

In the first of the series, we have published a literature review examining available literature on bias in the context of supervised machine learning.

We are proposing new incident and third party reporting requirements for firms, making it clearer for them which incidents and third party arrangements to report, when to report them and how. This will enable us to respond to incidents more quickly and effectively, especially as many stem from third parties which firms increasingly rely on.

These proposals, jointly developed with PRA and the Bank of England, will strengthen firms' operational resilience and minimise harm to consumers and markets, benefitting both firms and the wider sector.

We are currently seeking views, with submissions closing on 13 March 2025.

We, alongside the PRA have published our annual thematic analysis of CBEST- an assessment tool. The analysis highlights our observations of cyber resilience practices such as cyber defences, as well as detection and response capabilities against threats.

CBEST allows regulators to assess firms’ cyber resilience by using live penetration testing that mimics the actions of cyber attackers. It enables firms and regulators to better understand vulnerabilities and implement remedies, strengthening the resilience of firms and the wider financial sector.

We encourage firms’ cyber security teams and senior managers to consider the observations in our annual CBEST thematic analysis.

In April 2024 we introduced 3 new Product Sales Data returns for consumer credit agreements in Policy Statement 24/3. We have worked closely with industry on implementation, and responded to feedback with proposed amendments to clarify or improve the wording. We are now consulting on these minor amendments to the Handbook in CP24/26: Quarterly Consultation Paper No 46.

Firms and software vendors can use the RegData Industry Test Environment (ITE) to test data item submissions using test data. For access to the ITE, please email RegDataTest@fca.org.uk.

Our webpage gives information on all consumer credit returns.

The Bank of England has published the results of the system-wide exploratory scenario (SWES). We have closely collaborated on this exercise to explore systemic risks to the UK financial system during times of stress. It is the first exercise of its kind globally.

The final report provides valuable insights which firms can use to improve their risk management practices and contingency planning. We look forward to future collaboration on similar exercises to help ensure UK markets remain effective, efficient and reliable.

We’ve published our consultation proposing changes to update references to the new 2024 edition of the UK Corporate Governance Code (the Code) in our Handbook. Please respond by 13 January 2025.

Final rules will not be in place for 1 January 2025, when the 2024 version of the Code replaces the 2018 Code. Subject to feedback and FCA Board approval, we aim to make final rules as soon as possible. Until then, the Handbook will continue to reference the 2018 Code. However, we encourage issuers to adopt the 2024 Code from 1 January 2025, or at the earliest opportunity.

We have published the latest data from firms who have signed up to the Government’s Mortgage Charter.

Key findings include:

• The data suggests that a minimum of around 1.7 million mortgages have benefited from one or more of the options set out in the Charter, whether explicitly or through a business-as-usual channel.
• Around 149,000 mortgages have temporarily reduced monthly payments via our new rules.

Along with the Bank of England, we have published the 2024 Q3 Mortgage Lending Statistics data for regulated firms carrying out mortgage lending and mortgage administration.

The data we publish includes:

• The outstanding value of all residential loans. 
• Total gross advances by loan-to-value and income multiples.
• Value of new commitments.
• Proportion of mortgage loans above Bank Rate.

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

Starting in spring 2025 we will be hosting periodic roundtable events for firms and advisors in the payments and digital asset sectors. The events will be hosted by staff from across the FCA to help applicants understand the registration/authorisation process and our expectations at the gateway and beyond.

To register your interest in these sessions please complete this form.

We are hosting a UK MiFID Transaction Reporting Forum to bring together investment firms with transaction reporting obligation under UK MiFID and trade associations to discuss the proposed changes set out in DP24/2.

The aim of the forum is to examine the evolving content of transaction reports, provide clarity and get views on the practical implications of the proposed changes.

Register here.