The FCA has 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 unnecessary

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

News from Companies House: Over 150,000 UK companies are being targeted for enforcement action in 2025–26 as part of a national crackdown...