Consumer Understanding under the Consumer Duty: the capability gap firms must now address

The FCA’s Consumer understanding: good practice and areas for improvement publication is not simply guidance on better communications – it’s a clear statement about capability, governance and behavioural maturity under the Consumer Duty.  While the FCA continues to allow flexibility in how outcomes are achieved, firms must now be able to demonstrate how their people, processes and decision‑making genuinely support consumer understanding across the organisation.  What the FCA expects beyond […]

Delivering good outcomes under the FCA’s Mortgage Regulatory Priorities

The FCA has published its Regulatory Priorities report for the mortgages sector, setting out where it will focus supervisory attention over the year ahead. Covering mortgage and home finance lenders, administrators and intermediaries, the report is intended to give boards and senior leaders a clearer, more joined‑up view of regulatory expectations, replacing multiple portfolio letters with a single point […]

FCA Regulatory Priorities Payments: Key areas of focus

The FCA’s Regulatory Priorities: Payments report for 2026 outlines the supervisory focus for payment and e-money firms and serves as a practical guide for boards and senior managers, highlighting key areas where regulatory scrutiny will intensify over the coming year.  Four core themes for the payments sector The report emphasises four consistent themes shaping the FCA’s approach:   Preparing for future regulation and innovation  The […]

FCA Regulatory Priorities for the Wholesale Buy Side: what firms need to evidence now

The FCA has published its first Regulatory Priorities report for the wholesale buy side, replacing more than 40 individual portfolio letters with a single, annual statement of expectations. The message to boards and senior management is deliberately direct: firms should read the report carefully, assess the priorities against their business model, and act where necessary.  While the […]

FCA Regulatory Priorities for Wholesale Markets: why boards should act now

The FCA’s Regulatory Priorities for Wholesale Markets report marks a clear shift in how expectations are framed – and how firms will be supervised going forward. Replacing more than 40 portfolio letters, the new annual sector reports are intended to be read by boards and senior management, not delegated down the organisation. They come with an explicit call to act, not just to acknowledge […]

FCA Regulatory Priorities report for retail banking: Key takeaways

The FCA has outlined its Regulatory Priorities report for retail banking, for the upcoming year, focusing on areas where supervisory and policy scrutiny will intensify. The report targets retail banks and building societies, emphasising the importance of governance, operational resilience, and consumer outcomes amidst ongoing digital transformation and evolving business models.  Cash access and customer inclusion amid digital transformation […]

Building a strong year three Consumer Duty Board report: five practical priorities

As firms prepare for their third annual Consumer Duty Board report, expectations are shifting from evidencing governance activity to demonstrating tangible improvements in customer outcomes.  This creates a practical challenge. A Board-ready narrative is not simply a reporting exercise, it relies on disciplined monitoring, testing, remediation and documentation across the first and second lines.  For many firms, the pressure is as much about […]

FCA Insurance Regulatory Priorities report: key impacts for insurers and intermediaries

In February, the FCA published its first Regulatory Priorities report for the insurance sector, marking a significant shift in how supervisory expectations are communicated. The report replaces over 40 portfolio letters and is intended to become the FCA’s central annual reference point for boards and senior executives across retail and wholesale insurers, intermediaries, price comparison websites, […]

AI in financial services: capability, control and oversight

From AI adoption to accountability AI adoption across financial services is no longer a future‑facing ambition. For many firms, it is already embedded in customer interactions, onboarding, monitoring, fraud detection and decision support. What began as tightly scoped experimentation has moved quickly into operational reality, often at speed and scale.  What is changing is not the pace […]