On 6 July we launched the landmark Mills Review, which sets out how AI could reshape retail financial services for consumers, firms, markets and regulators by 2030 and beyond.

Led by former FCA executive director Sheldon Mills and commissioned by our Board, the review is the first of its kind initiated by a regulator globally. It builds on our principles-based, outcomes-focused approach to AI, and our work with firms through initiatives such as AI Live Testing and the Supercharged Sandbox.

The review draws on views from across financial services to identify several major AI‑driven shifts, including the transformation of firm operations and the evolution of consumer journeys.

The report also includes FCA-commissioned research which shows that there is already consumer appetite for agentic AI in personal finance. A fifth of people – equivalent to 11 million UK adults – are likely to use AI that can act autonomously within pre-set goals. But consumers are concerned about trust and control of AI.

The Mills Review makes 7 recommendations, which the FCA Board and Executive will now consider:

• Secure and adapt the regulatory perimeter

• Strengthen system-wide coordination and oversight

• Monitor the transition to autonomous models and adapt regulatory frameworks 

• Scale up the FCA's AI Lab to support AI models and system innovation in financial services

• Enable the foundations for agentic finance

• Build and adopt an AI-enabled agentic supervisory model

• Develop a trusted public-interest AI-enabled financial capability service

Our annual report marks the end of year 1 of our 5-year strategy. It sets out our progress across our four strategic priorities: helping consumers, fighting crime, supporting growth and becoming a smarter regulator.

We delivered nearly 50 pro-growth measures to support the UK's competitiveness and attract international investment. We approved the first firms under the new PISCES private markets framework, and opened new offices in the US, Asia-Pacific and Singapore. We also launched a joint Scale-Up Unit with the PRA to help growing firms scale sustainably, and gave earlier certainty to more than 380 firms by letting them know we were minded-to-approve their applications.

A key focus has been on reducing regulatory burden. All firms can now access regulatory services through a single sign-in portal, My FCA, and we've decommissioned data reporting requirements for over 90% of firms – saving them an estimated £16m annually. We've also replaced 43 portfolio letters with 9 Regulatory Priorities reports, making our aims clearer for each sector.

We took strong action where firms didn’t meet our standards, fining them approximately £14.4m for transaction reporting failures and weak controls.

We’ve helped consumers in insurance, with around 270,000 receiving £200m in compensation, and those paying monthly premiums saving an estimated £157m a year. And consumers have used our Firm Checker tool over 1.9 million times to verify whether a firm is authorised.

Across all our work, we estimate we delivered £5.6bn in benefits to consumers, firms and the wider economy - equivalent to £7.2 for every £1 spent running the FCA.

We’ve told banks and building societies to improve access to basic bank accounts, after our mystery shopping exercise found widespread poor practice. Basic accounts are important for financial inclusion, helping people get essential banking services where they may be unbanked or can’t qualify for a standard current account. Nine of the UK’s biggest banks and building societies are legally required to offer them.

Our review found that firms did not always tell eligible customers about these accounts and how they could help them. This included people facing financial hardship, those without standard forms of identification and people with no fixed address. A third of interactions were rated poor or very poor, with firms sometimes not mentioning basic bank accounts at all or directing customers to unsuitable online-only journeys.

Following our intervention, the 9 firms have agreed individual improvement plans. They’ve also pledged to improve customer outcomes, through a collective commitment supported by UK Finance. As part of this, they will:

• help customers access the right account first time

• make it easier for people without standard identification or a fixed address to open an account

• identify characteristics of vulnerability early so they can give customers appropriate support

Firms should review their customer journeys, staff awareness, and support arrangements, systems, and controls. These should all work together to ensure eligible customers can access these products easily and have good outcomes. We’ll monitor progress and hold firms to account for delivering these improvements.

The FCA and the PRA are consulting on the developed UK framework for the captive insurance regime in the UK. The framework is designed to be proportionate and give companies greater flexibility.

The new regime will introduce:

• a streamlined authorisation process

• tailored conduct requirements

• lower capital and reporting thresholds

Captives will be exempt from Solvency UK and Consumer Duty requirements.

You can send us feedback using the details in the FCA and PRA Consultation Papers. The closing date is 14 October 2026.

We're proposing reforms to make our regulation of asset managers more proportionate, reduce costs and improve the data we use to supervise the sector.

Much of the estimated £128m annual saving would come from simpler, UK-tailored Fund Reporting for Asset Management Entities (FRAME) requirements.

The proposals would also modernise Alternative Investment Fund Managers Regulation (AIFMD)-related rules and simplify our remuneration requirements, replacing overlapping codes with a clearer, more proportionate framework, while maintaining appropriate safeguards.

There are 3 consultations:

• UK Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) regime (respond by 14 October 2026)

• Solo Remuneration Rules Reform (respond by 16 September 2026)

• Fund Reporting for Asset Management Entities (FRAME) (respond by 22 September 2026)

On 2 July, we published PS26/14, finalising the rules that enable us to collect fees and levies in 2026/27. Final fee and levy rates for 2026/27 differ in some places from the draft rates we consulted on in CP26/11, due to changes in fee data from firms. We also confirmed:

• a 1% increase to minimum, flat-rate, and application fees

• the continued staged increase to A-block and consumer credit minimum fees

• levy rates for the Financial Ombudsman Service

• levies collected on behalf of government departments

• updated guidance on our preferred method of payment

We've published findings from our review of unit-linked non-workplace pensions and savings, which are pooled investments offered by life insurers. They hold over £1trn of customer investments.

We found customers in older products are more likely to receive poorer value, with higher charges, lower investment returns and fewer features than newer products.

Some firms are already taking positive steps, but more action is needed. Firms should review our findings, reflect on good practice examples, and act promptly when they can't evidence fair value.

There are more details on what good practice looks like on our LinkedIn article.

We continue to focus on helping all firms apply the Consumer Duty in a proportionate and practical way.

We’ve updated existing good practice reviews on consumer support, complaints and root cause analysis and the price and value outcome with additional insight and examples, including for smaller firms.

We’ll continue to include extra insights for smaller firms in all new good practice materials, as well as updating more of our existing Duty best practice resources, throughout the year.

We reviewed the way firms design, monitor and distribute products and services. We looked at the foundations that matter most: getting the design right from the outset, keeping products under review, and taking responsibility for outcomes where third parties sell or distribute products.

Some firms are improving outcomes through practical changes, but these approaches aren’t being applied consistently. While some firms are embedding these approaches well, others still have more to do to make product design work in practice.

Firms should use these findings to reflect on their own products and services and make improvements where needed.

You can also read our blog on why this really matters.

The Consumer Duty sets a higher standard of consumer protection, and we expect firms to monitor whether customers are receiving good outcomes in practice.

We reviewed firms’ approaches to outcomes monitoring. We’ve highlighted examples of firms identifying emerging risks, assessing customer experiences, and taking action to prevent harm. We found positive examples of firms developing more evidence-based approaches, but there are areas where firms should improve their monitoring arrangements.

We encourage firms to reflect on the findings and consider what they can do to deliver better customer outcomes. You can read more in our blog.

Together with the Bank of England and PRA, we have begun overseeing the first Critical Third Parties (CTPs) – major technology and service providers that underpin the UK financial system. They are designated by HM Treasury.

This is a system-wide approach to resilience, improving visibility, coordination and information-sharing where many firms use the same critical services. Designated CTPs must manage risks to these services, and share clear, timely information, particularly during major incidents. Firms must still manage their third-party risks under existing operational resilience rules.

Find out more in our joint blog with the PRA and on our website.

We’ve launched a nationwide advertising campaign to tell motor finance customers that they can complain directly to their lender for free if they think they may be owed compensation.

Research found that more than a quarter of customers lack the confidence to complain without a claims management company or law firm. We’re promoting our free complaint tools and template letter, helping consumers to feel claim-confident.

The campaign runs from 27 July to 6 September 2026 across TV, radio, print, outdoor advertising and social media.

We’ve announced further action to protect consumers from misleading motor finance claims advertising.

As part of the joint taskforce, we secured the removal or amendment of 170 misleading car finance claims adverts in June, bringing the total to 1,200 since January 2024. The adverts included promotions disguised as independent consumer recommendations, misleading references to our redress scheme, and services offered without the necessary authorisation.

We’re urging consumers to be cautious, and reminding them that our motor finance redress scheme will be free to use.

Anthropic will support the second group of firms taking part in the Supercharged Sandbox, giving them access to Claude to accelerate development work.

The Sandbox lets firms safely explore uses for AI in financial services. These include fraud and financial crime detection, safer agent-led payments, AI governance and accountability, and improved access for vulnerable consumers.

21 organisations will join the group following strong demand, with applications up by 51%.

The initiative supports our commitment to economic growth; we’re helping firms harness new technology, while maintaining the UK's position at the forefront of responsible AI adoption and innovation.

We published the findings from our engagement with 242 asset management and alternatives firms, highlighting examples of good and poor practice.

We examined how well firms:

• understand their inherent financial crime risk

• identify, mitigate and manage risks

We encourage firms to consider our findings in the context of their own business model and activities, and address any gaps in their financial crime controls.

We've launched a joint consultation with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and The Pensions Regulator on the Value for Money (VFM) framework. This framework is intended to support a significant shift in the way the workplace pension industry operates and competes.

The consultation contains our updated proposals, reflecting feedback from our previous consultation. It's accompanied by draft DWP regulations and our draft rules and guidance on how to implement the framework.

The DWP announced this as part of an industry-wide reform. The closing date to respond to the consultation is 1 September 2026.

An independent evaluation of the Payment Systems Regulator’s (PSR’s) Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud reimbursement policy found that APP fraud losses have fallen by an estimated £73 million a year since the policy was introduced. The number of scams fell by almost 35,000.

The findings show the policy is helping reduce APP fraud and improve outcomes for victims, while encouraging firms to invest more in fraud prevention.

The PSR has published a roadmap setting out the next steps. It will consult later this year on proposals to improve consistency in how the policy is applied.

The Retail Payments Infrastructure Board (RPIB), chaired by the Bank of England, recently published a consultation on the future retail payments infrastructure.

To support the consultation, the Payments Vision Delivery Committee (PVDC) which comprises representatives of HM Treasury, the FCA, the Bank of England and the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), has published further context to support stakeholders’ reading of the consultation. It covers issues such as how the commercial model for the infrastructure should work, and how the new infrastructure can support consumer protection and the fight against financial crime. 

Ahead of the crypto authorisations gateway opening, firms can request a pre-application meeting with us through our pre-application support service (PASS).

These free, optional meetings give firms an opportunity to introduce and explain their business model, discuss the authorisation process and understand our expectations.

Engaging with PASS can help firms prepare higher-quality applications and may support a smoother authorisation process.

The Wider Implications Framework (WIF) has published its Annual Report 2025-26, showing how WIF members have collaborated with each other and external stakeholders on key issues over the past year.

We have also updated the WIF Terms of Reference and published notes from June’s WIF Regulatory Family Chairs and CEOs Meeting.

See our website for more information about the work of the WIF.

We have published information and a blog on the risks of vertical integration.

Having a conflict of interest doesn't automatically make a business model unacceptable. But firms need to take these risks seriously.

They must actively identify, manage and evidence those conflicts. That means effective governance, clear senior management accountability and controls.

Firms should be able to show us how their arrangements deliver good outcomes for customers.

Where business models are overly complex or difficult to supervise, we expect firms to think seriously about simplifying them. And they should tell us promptly about any material changes to their business model that affect conflicts of interest.

As part of being a smarter regulator, we’re developing Regulatory Experience (RX), a new way of understanding and improving how regulation is delivered and experienced by the people who use FCA systems, guidance and processes.

The aim is to improve how regulation works in practice and track progress over time.

EY is carrying out independent research on our behalf, and is looking for volunteers who regularly complete regulatory tasks.

Workshops are planned for the week commencing 14 September 2026, with sessions expected in London, Leeds and Edinburgh, subject to demand.

To register your interest, please contact RegulatoryExperience@fca.org.uk.

We have published the results of our survey showing asset allocation data from a number of FCA-regulated firms. This will help shape the proposals in the government's Value for Money framework.

The survey is a market-wide benchmark of how major contract-based workplace pension providers invest default pension savings. It covers around 85–90% of the relevant market by assets, which is around £260bn.

The Pensions Regulator has published similar data for master trust schemes to provide wider workplace defined contribution market context.

We've published our latest general insurance value measures data, covering January to December 2025. The data shows that issues in the home and travel insurance markets remain a priority, following our work on the Which? super complaint and our Regulatory Priorities: Insurance report.

It also highlights how we use value measures data to identify where consumers may not be receiving fair value, and to target supervisory action where firms show significant or recurring outlier indicators.

We’ve published our latest access to cash coverage data, showing geographical cash access coverage in the UK at the end of the second half of 2025.

The data shows that 97.2% of the UK urban population is within 1 mile of a free-to-use cash access point offering deposits, and 97.3% of the UK rural population is within 3 miles.

For withdrawals, 99.6% of the UK urban population is within 1 mile of a free-to-use cash access point, and 98.1% of the UK rural population is within 3 miles.

We’ll now report access to cash coverage every 6 months, rather than quarterly.

Our latest retail intermediary market update analyses data submitted by around 12,000 firms through the Retail Mediation Activities Return (RMAR).

We have revised our approach to the publication since 2025.

The data shows that revenue from non-investment insurance distribution increased by 6.4% in 2025 compared with 2024. Revenue from retail investment intermediation increased by 13.9%, while mortgage broking revenue increased by 15.9%.

Interactive dashboards accompany the publication and allow users to explore the data in more detail.

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

Following the publication of our policy statements for the new UK cryptoasset regime and an introductory webinar on 17 July 2026, we're running a series of webinars throughout September to help firms understand the new requirements and prepare for authorisation.

Sessions will cover:

• admissions and disclosures, and the market abuse regime

• UK stablecoins issuance 

• regulated cryptoasset activities

• the prudential regime

• applying the FCA Handbook

• getting authorised under the new regime

Each webinar will include the opportunity to ask questions to the panel.