FCA Launches Mills Review on AI Future On 27 January 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) launched the Mills Review to explore the long-term impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on UK retail financial services, inviting industry and stakeholder input on how AI could reshape the sector by 2030 and beyond. The review, led by Sheldon Mills, seeks feedback across four key themes: Future evolution of AI technology – including autonomous, agentic and multimodal AI systems,

FCA Finalises Rules for New Advice Regime The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has finalised its new “targeted support” regime, designed to close the UK’s long-standing financial advice gap. The framework allows authorised firms to provide regulated recommendations to groups of consumers with shared characteristics, without carrying out a full individual suitability assessment. Targeted support sits between generic guidance and full personalised advice. The FCA’s aim is to m

FCA Modernises Authorisation Amid Growth Push The Financial Conduct Authority is modernising its authorisation process to better support innovation and growth across UK financial services, while maintaining robust regulatory standards. Speaking at its “Gateway to Growth” event, the FCA highlighted a clear shift in tone: authorisation should be seen as an enabler of growth, not just a regulatory hurdle. Key developments include: Faster and more predictable authorisation timeli

The FCA has significantly stepped up its crackdown on so-called finfluencers. New figures show enforcement action increased by 174 percent in 2025, with 74 interventions compared to 27 the previous year. The focus is on tackling misleading or unauthorised financial promotions across social media and other online platforms, as the regulator responds to growing consumer harm in the digital advice space. This sharp rise reflects a wider problem. A large volume of financial conte

FCA launches long-term review into AI and retail financial services The FCA has announced a forward-looking review into how artificial intelligence could reshape retail financial services over the next decade. The review will examine how rapidly advancing AI capabilities may affect consumer behaviour, market dynamics, competition, and the way firms design, distribute and monitor financial products. Importantly, the FCA has been clear that there is no immediate change to regul

FCA launches review as non-human intelligence could surpass human reasoning The FCA has launched a major forward-looking review into the impact of advanced artificial intelligence on retail financial services, looking out to 2030 and beyond. Led by Executive Director Sheldon Mills, the review will examine emerging technologies such as agentic AI, neuromorphic computing and the possibility of non-human intelligence exceeding human reasoning capabilities. Prompted by concerns f

FCA warnings on selling complex products The FCA has warned that a number of firms are not meeting expected standards when selling complex investment products to retail investors. Its review found weaknesses in how firms assess investor understanding, define target markets, and communicate risk. In particular, disclosures are often overly technical and fail to explain clearly how features such as leverage, volatility, or daily resets can impact outcomes. While some firms have

Summary — Regulatory Outlook for 2026 As we look ahead to 2026, the UK regulatory landscape is shaping up to be one of significant evolution and strategic change. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is expected to continue focusing on consumer outcomes, leveraging existing frameworks like the Consumer Duty rather than introducing entirely new AI-specific rules — emphasising enforcement and good conduct over prescriptive regulation. Key themes advisers and firms should watch

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has launched a pioneering “AI Live Testing” initiative — the first of its kind in the UK financial sector — giving select major firms a controlled environment to trial and refine responsible AI tools for real-world deployment.   The goal: help firms navigate evaluation frameworks, ongoing monitoring, governance and risk management — enabling use cases such as debt-resolution, financial advice, customer engagement, complaints handling and

The FCA h as announced a major simplification of the complaints reporting process for regulated firms. From 2025, firms will no longer need to submit detailed twice-yearly complaint returns. Instead, the FCA will use smarter data collection and risk-based oversight to reduce the reporting burden—particularly for smaller firms—while still maintaining strong consumer protection standards. This is part of the FCA’s wider move to streamline regulatory processes, remove unnecessa

FCA Authorisations Update: 2025–26 Q2 – What You Need to Know   The FCA has released its Q2 service-metric performance, showing a mixed picture across authorisations:   🔹 Most applications are still being processed within statutory deadlines, but some areas remain under pressure due to case complexity and increased scrutiny. 🔹 Higher-risk and more complex applications are taking longer, reflecting the FCA’s continued focus on robust assessments, operational resilience, fina

The FCA’s latest thematic review highlights major shortcomings in how UK firms assess financial-crime risk. Many Business-Wide Risk Assessments (BWRA) and Customer Risk Assessments (CRA) are still too generic, poorly evidenced, or disconnected from real-world controls. Key gaps identified include:  • Risk assessments not tailored to the firm’s actual products, customers or exposure.  • Weak links between BWRA findings and monitoring/testing.  • Senior management focusing heav

FCA Warns: Weak Risk Frameworks Won’t Cut It — Time for Smarter Oversight and AI-Driven Insight The FCA’s latest multi-firm review has highlighted major weaknesses in how regulated firms assess and manage risk. The regulator found that many firms: Still use underdeveloped risk frameworks that don’t reflect their size or complexity Fail to stress-test liquidity risks or model realistic scenarios Overlook group-level interdependencies, missing how parent companies or affiliates

Big news from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – they’re sharpening their fraud prevention toolkit. The regulator announced it will now have the power to cancel or amend a firm’s permission within 28 days if the firm fails to take appropriate action after a warning. Key highlights: Firms must now prove they are actively using the regulated activity they’re authorised for — or risk losing that permission. The move is aimed at tackling impersonation and cloning of authoris

FCA extends car finance compensation plan as lenders push back The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has launched a consultation on an industry-wide compensation scheme for motor-finance customers who may have been mis-sold deals between 6 April 2007 and 1 November 2024. Key points: The issue centres on hidden or undisclosed commissions (including discretionary commission arrangements) that may have inflated costs for borrowers. Around 14.2 million agreements — roughly 44% of

FCA Review: Consolidation in the Advice & Wealth-Management Sector The FCA has released its review into consolidation across the financial advice and wealth-management sector — and the message is clear: growth through acquisition is not inherently positive. The outcomes depend on how well firms manage governance, financial resilience and post-acquisition integration. The review highlights that consolidation can bring benefits — including scale and operational efficiency — whe

FCA permissions show sharp drop in consumer credit roles — Q2 2025 highlights Recent analysis of FCA permissions data reveals a notable...

FCA Authorisations Service Performance – Q1 2025/26 The latest FCA metrics show strong performance across most authorisation areas, with...

The FCA has launched a new & improved Handbook website Published: 4 July 2025 (beta now live)   Full details: https://www.fca.org.uk/news...