Overview

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom. It operates independently of the UK Government and is financed by charging fees to members of the financial services industry. The FCA regulates financial firms providing services to consumers, and maintains the integrity of the financial markets in the United Kingdom.

It focuses on the regulation of conduct by both retail and wholesale financial services firms. Like its predecessor the FSA, the FCA is structured as a company limited by guarantee.

The FCA works alongside the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Policy Committee to set regulatory requirements for the financial sector. The FCA is responsible for the conduct of around 58,000 businesses which employ 2.2 million people and contribute around £65.6 billion in annual tax revenue to the economy in the United Kingdom.

History

The Financial Services Act 2012 came into force on 1 April 2013. The Act created a new regulatory framework for financial services and abolished the Financial Services Authority. Specifically, the Act gave the Bank of England responsibility for financial stability, bringing together macro and micro prudential regulation, and created a new regulatory structure consisting of the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee, the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority.

On 26 October 2015, the FCA brought in rules banning regulated financial services firms from offering premium rate 084, 087 or 09 telephone numbers for customer contact.

The FCA published new Listing Rules in 2024, aiming to simplify the UK listings regime, marking the most significant changes in over three decades. These rules, effective from 29 July 2024, created a single listing category and streamlined eligibility criteria to encourage a wider range of companies to issue shares in the UK.

Payment Systems Regulator

In April 2015, the FCA created a separate entity, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), in accordance with section 40 of the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013. The PSR's role is "to promote competition and innovation in payment systems, and ensure they work in the interests of the organisations and people that use them".

Part 5 of the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013 (regulation of payment systems) was amended in 2015, removing "an unintended restriction on the ability of the PSR to exercise its powers for the purpose of requiring access to be granted to systems designated under the Settlement Finality Directive". After this, the PSR's powers applied to any payment system to which the access provisions of the Payment Services Directive of 2007 applied.

From May 2019 some victims of authorized push payment fraud are eligible to receive a refund under the Contingent Reimbursement Model Scheme, a voluntary scheme overseen by the Payment Systems Regulator that provides protections for customers of signatory firms, subject to a number of exclusions.

Anti-money laundering supervision

The Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision (OPBAS) is based within the FCA. It was established in January 2018 to oversee the 22 accountancy and legal professional bodies which supervise anti-money laundering compliance in view of the Money Laundering Act 2017.

Powers

The authority has significant powers, including the power to regulate conduct related to the marketing of financial products. It is able to specify minimum standards and to place requirements on products. It has the power to investigate organisations and individuals. In addition, the FCA is able to ban financial products for up to a year while considering an indefinite ban. It has the power to instruct firms to immediately retract or modify promotions which it finds to be misleading and to publish such decisions.

Furthermore, the FCA is able to freeze assets of individuals or organisations under investigation, regardless of whether they are innocent or guilty. The authority has been responsible for regulating the consumer credit industry since 1 April 2014, taking over the role from the Office of Fair Trading.

In July 2023, the FCA announced reforms aiming to curb the use of social media by 'finfluencers' to encourage the purchasing of harmful financial products by UK consumers. Among the reforms was a ban on crypto incentives, such as 'refer a friend' bonuses, a compulsion for finfluencers to have clear risk warnings and for products to have a 24-hour cooling period to give first-time investors the time to adequately consider their investment decision.

The move came following a significant rise in social media promotion of financial products by finfluencers in 2022, with 14 times more having been posted than the previous year.