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On 15 September 2021, the FCA published the Consumer Investments: Strategy and feedback Statement, giving more detail on its plans to tackle investment harm. The purpose of the strategy is to provide consumers with the confidence to invest, supported by high quality, affordable advice market, which should lead to fewer people being scammed or persuaded to […]

On 15 July 2021, the FCA published its long-awaited annual Business Plan for 2021-22. The new Plan restates the FCA’s aim to become a forward-looking, proactive regulator under the leadership of Nikhil Rathi and sets out the organisation’s priorities over the next 1-5 years. There has been a clear shift away from the very defined

The FCA recently published its Dear CEO letter (dated 21 May 2021) issued to retail banks requesting for the firms to identify and address common control failings in their anti-money laundering (AML) frameworks by 17 September 2021. In the letter, the FCA detail the common weaknesses identified in its recent assessments of retail banks’ financial crime systems

On 24 May 2021, the PRA published its business plan for 2021/22. The plan covers sets out the PRA’s strategic goals for the coming year, its budget for 2021/22 and its highest-level actions to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the regulated firms and the economy.  In this month’s industry insight, we summarise the business plan’s

The FCA launched the second phase of its proposed rules for the UK Investment Firm Prudential Regime (“IFPR”) by publishing the Consultation Paper 21/7: A new UK prudential regime for MiFID investment firms (“CP21/7”). The CP21/7 should be read in conjunction with the FCA’s first consultation paper on the IFPR, published last December (CP20/24) which we summarised in our November newsletter last year. The IFPR follows similar requirements that seek to

On 29 March 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) published their final policy statements on operational resilience following their consultations papers issued in December 2019. The new rules will come into effect on 31 March 2022, giving firms a one-year implementation period to comply with the new requirements. There is also a 3-year transition window to March 2025 that

Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) is also known as the ESG Disclosure Regulation, and the kickstarts the regulator’s initiative to make ESG into hard law. It will apply to EU and other relevant financial market participants (FMIs) such as UCITS management companies and AIFMs from 10 March 2021. Any investment manager based in or outside

In 2020, COVID-19 dominated everything, sweeping away all regulatory plans for the year with regulators focusing on providing support to both firms and their customers. We expect the regulators’ recovery efforts to continue. That said, what else can we expect to be a priority in the regulators’ agendas? This month’s insight captures some of the

The FCA has begun surveying solo-regulated MiFID investment firms and  CPMI firms in its preparation for the new prudential regime, EU’s Investment Firm Directive and Regulation. The purpose of the survey is to assist the FCA to better understand the impact of the new regime on firms in terms of the costs and benefits. The

The month of October was a busy month for the regulators, PRA and FCA who issued Dear CEO letters to financial institutions on their final preparations, for the end of the Brexit transition period. The letter is broken down into different areas where the regulators remind firms of their expectations. This month’s insight summarises the