Regulatory News
FCA: Vulnerability review
FCA is reviewing how consumer investment firms support bereaved customers. It has published research which found that 47% of bereaved customers felt they received the support they needed from financial firms. The review will focus on firms that advise, manage, or administer investments (including platforms, advisers and wealth managers). FCA will examine the experience customers have from the moment the firm is told about a bereavement, through to settlement or transfer of investments and will assess how firms communicate, how they support vulnerable customers, their service standards, and how fees are handled on bereaved accounts.
PRA: Speech by Sam Woods: Clinical supervision
Text of Sam Woods’ speech of 12 May 2026 follows in which he discusses banking supervision. He concludes: “as the financial system and broader economy continue to evolve, supervisors will need to upskill across an even broader set of issues … This might in time mean a more senior and more specialised workforce”.
FCA: Appointments
FCA has announced the appointments of Simon Walls (executive director, markets) and Johan Sekora (COO).
HMG: The Enhancing Financial Services Bill
The Enhancing Financial Services Bill was announced in the King’s Speech and is intended to deliver key parts of the Leeds Reforms. Amongst other matters, the Bill will: enact reforms to FOS; consolidate PSR within FCA; reduce the overall burden of SM&CR by 50% with a focus on accountability of the most senior figures in financial services, and update the statutory framework underpinning the ringfencing regime in order to unlock more finance for SMEs.
BoE: DLT Innovation Challenge 2025 – final report
The report describes the outcomes of the DLT Innovation Challenge and sets out how it has informed BoE’s views on DLT with regard to settlement finality, scalability, network and asset control and interoperability.
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HMT: Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy Regulatory Environment: Cross-Cutting Reforms – consultation response
Further to its July 2025 consultation, HMT has now published a consultation response document. The Government intends to legislate (when parliamentary time allows) to: set new, shorter statutory deadlines for determining applications for new firm authorisations, VoPs, and senior manager approvals; require FCA and PRA to produce new long-term strategies, at least once every five years; require the regulators to have regard to regulatory and supervisory principles when producing their new long-term strategies, and remove the requirement for the regulators to consider these when making day-to-day decisions, and remove a range of reporting and other procedural requirements from the regulators The Government also intends to legislate to shorten a number of other statutory deadlines relating to those it consulted on.
FCA: Speech by Sarah Pritchard: Laying the foundation for confidence
Text of Sarah Pritchard’s speech of 11 May 2026 follows in which she discusses current and future regulatory work in relation to private markets.
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FCA: Legal challenges to motor finance compensation scheme - update for firms and consumers
FCA has set out further advice for firms and consumers, noting firms should still submit implementation plans for the scheme by 12 May 2026, but the regulator will not insist on receiving formal attestations by 12 May. FCA is preparing for a contingency scenario in which the scheme does not proceed which it sets out in some detail here. FCA also sums up the grounds for the challenge to the scheme.
BoE: Trade in services under regulatory barriers – evidence from UK banking
This BoE Staff Working paper considers how regulatory barriers affect cross-border lending and deposit-taking by banks.
FCA: Whistleblowing data
FCA has published information on new whistleblowing reports received between January and March 2026, along with existing reports closed during this period.
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