Financial Conduct Authority work programme 2025-26

28 May 2025

FCA Unveils 2025/26 work programme to enhance regulation, support growth, aid consumers, and combat financial crime.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published its annual work programme 2025/26 [1] on 8 April 2025, setting out what it will deliver across its four strategic priorities. This follows the publication of the FCA’s 5-year strategy [2] in March 2025. The four strategic priorities are:

A smarter regulator: more efficient and effective.
Supporting growth.
Helping consumers navigate their financial lives.
Fighting financial crime.

A smarter regulator: more efficient and effective

Streamline data collection and improve regulatory interactions - Promote firms’ single point of entry sign-in with their existing details through My FCA.
Digitise and improve the authorisation process - Deliver ‘flexi collections’, a new capability within RegData to allow firms to submit ad-hoc information requests more easily.
Enhanced supervision model - Smaller number of priorities with market engagement directed to areas of greatest harm. This is accompanied by a more flexible approach for compliant firms. Review of firm categorisation model to build relationships with a wider range of significant participants.
Improved use of intelligence and data to spot and act on harm - Simplified triage processes to focus effort on higher risk cases, combined with new technologies to better support supervision and authorisation teams.

Supporting growth

Unlock capital investment and liquidity, and support UK economic growth - Accelerating a review of capital requirements for specialised trading firms and launching proposals to simplify specific conduct requirements for commercial insurance businesses.
Accelerate digital innovation to improve productivity - Supporting AI adoption and assessing GDPR barriers to innovation. Consultations will also be held on changes to contactless payment limits and new digital service standards.
Reduce the regulatory burden - Streamlining rules and guidance materials. For example, now that the Consumer Duty is in place, any future consumer protection work should seek to be as streamlined as possible.
Certainty and predictability - Providing clarity on potential motor finance redress and work with the Financial Ombudsman Service and the Treasury to modernise the redress framework.
Make it easier for financial services firms to start up and grow - Support early and high-growth firms with dedicated supervisors and authorisations case officers. The Pre-application Support Service (PASS) will be extended to wholesale, payments, and crypto firms.
Improve exports and inward investment - Supporting the UK’s strategy to become a global sustainable finance hub and establish a presence in the US and Asia Pacific.

Helping consumers navigate their financial lives

Deferred payment credit (DPC)/buy now pay later - (BNPL) Working with the government to bring DPC into the FCA’s regulatory regime, developing a rules framework for BNPL products to ensure good outcomes for borrowers.
Innovation - Firms will be encouraged to develop solutions that improve consumer resilience, supported by the FCA’s innovation services and policy work.
Motor finance - Reviewing past commission arrangements and considering an industry-wide redress scheme if widespread failings are found.
Consumer Duty - Continuing to embed the Consumer Duty, sharing good and poor practice examples to help firms deliver good outcomes for consumers.
Advice guidance boundary review rules - Reform to improve access to financial advice, with proposals for targeted support across pensions and retail investments.
Pensions - Development of pensions dashboards and a regulatory framework for pension products, focusing on consumer outcomes and transparency.
Financial inclusion - Development of a national financial inclusion strategy and work with stakeholders to promote workplace savings.
Supporting vulnerable consumers - Improvements will be made for consumers in vulnerable circumstances, drawing on the Consumer Duty and good practice.
Consumer engagement - Enhance understanding of consumer experiences to shape strategic activities and improve consumer outcomes.
Market studies - To assess competition and value in protection products and premium finance for motor and home insurance, participating in the government’s motor insurance task force.

Fighting financial crime

Identify financial crime - Develop data-led detection capabilities to increase identification of financial crime in regulated firms.
Tackle organised crime - Collaboration will be increased to prevent and disrupt criminal activities.
Invest in systems - Continued investment will allow the FCA to use intelligence and data more effectively in financial crime work, targeting higher-risk firms.
Engage with partners - Active engagement with government, regulators, law enforcement, and industry to share data and tackle criminal networks.
Proactive supervision - Focus on proactive assessments of anti-money laundering systems and controls for higher-risk firms, collaborating with stakeholders to develop a shared money laundering metric.
Market abuse - Assertive action against market abuse, improving detection and investigation capabilities.
Technology - To identify and disrupt unauthorised financial services, raising public awareness through campaigns.

In summary, the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) annual work programme for 2025/26 outlines a comprehensive approach to enhancing regulatory efficiency, supporting economic growth, aiding consumers, and combating financial crime.

By focusing on these strategic priorities, the FCA aims to foster a more resilient and innovative financial services sector, ensuring better outcomes for firms and consumers alike. This proactive and forward-thinking agenda underscores the FCA's commitment to maintaining a robust regulatory framework that adapts to evolving market dynamics and emerging challenges.

Next steps

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Sources

[1] FCA annual work programme 2025/26

[2] FCA-strategy-2025-30

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