• Upper Tribunal upholds Jes Staley ban: On 26 June 2025, the Upper Tribunal upheld the FCA’s decision to ban Jes Staley, former CEO of Barclays, from holding senior management roles in the financial services industry. Mr Staley was found to have acted with a lack of integrity, to have failed to be open and co-operative and to have failed to make appropriate disclosures to the FCA in in respect of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. 

Upper Tribunal upholds Jes Staley ban | FCA

JAMES EDWARD STALEY v THE FINANCIAL CONDUCT AUTHORITY [2025] UKUT 00203 (TCC) - GOV.UK

• Nikhil Rathi, FCA chief executive, speech on growth and risk culture: On 26 June 2025, Nikhil Rathi gave a speech at TheCityUK’s annual conference 2025. The speech noted the Government’s aim for the UK to be the world’s most innovative full-service financial centre by 2035. 

Mr Rathi discussed the FCA’s response to the Prime Minister’s Christmas gift: a challenge to support growth. He set out the FCA’s role in creating the conditions to support growth including the FCA’s shift toward outcome-based regulation and also pointed to nearly 50 new proposals in 2025. 

On discussions regarding risk culture he acknowledged the criticisms of the FCA for being too risk averse and explained that his calls for a debate on risk appetite and metrics for tolerable failures are to ensure that there is a shift to a stance that endures. He commented that if they do shift the boundary, “this means widespread acceptance that some may have fewer protections than today”. 

What kind of market do we want to be? | FCA

• New FCA Handbook website: On 26 June 2025, the FCA confirmed that the new website for the FCA Handbook will be rolled out later this year. The website will be rolled out in stages and a beta version has now been launched, available here. Both versions of the website will be available whilst the beta version undergoes testing. 

Handbook of rules and guidance | FCA

• House of Lords’ Financial Services Regulation Committee Report on the secondary international competitiveness and growth objective: On 13 June 2025, the House of Lords’ Financial Services Regulation Committee published their report examining the FCA’s secondary international competitiveness and growth objective. The report “Growing pains: clarity and culture change required” makes recommendations to the FCA, PRA, and the Government. Criticisms in the report include (amongst others): 
  • that the FCA does not do enough to distinguish between firms that cater to wholesale and retail markets in its regulation and supervision which imposes unnecessary burdens and frictions on firms; 
  • that the regulators do not have a clear understanding of the cumulative burden of regulation, and they must work with their respective cost-benefit analysis panels to develop a rigorous approach to assessing the cumulative burden of compliance;
  • that the lack of clarity under the Consumer Duty and the Financial Ombudsman's evolution into a quasi-regulator, coupled with regulatory uncertainty, gives the impression that there is a regulatory penalty on investment in UK businesses;
  • an unacceptable length of time taken to address the advice gap (a five-year review) which the report states must be concluded urgently; and
  • a view that the narrative around the secondary objective could become dominated by the issue of where the setting of risk appetite resides. 

The FCA responded with a statement on the same day setting out measures to support growth, stating they “agree that there is more to do to understand the role of regulation in unlocking growth in the wider economy and that’s why we have commissioned research on this topic”.

Growing pains: clarity and culture change required. An examination of the secondary international competitiveness and growth objective

Statement on the Financial Conduct Authority’s commitment to growth | FCA

• Retirement income advice: good practice: On 11 June 2025, the FCA published a guide to good practice and areas for improvement with regard to retirement income advice following its review of a sample of 28 firms. The FCA’s guidance focused on the following areas which the FCA considered as fundamental to the provision of good outcomes for clients in decumulation: the quality of firms’ information collection and record-keeping; the appropriateness of client risk profiling; and sustainability of client income withdrawals.

Retirement income advice: good practice and areas for improvement | FCA

• Appointment of Sarah Pritchard as deputy chief executive of the FCA: On 11 June 2025, the FCA published a guide to good practice and areas for improvement with regard to retirement income advice following its review of a sample of 28 firms. The FCA’s guidance focused on the following areas which the FCA considered as fundamental to the provision of good outcomes for clients in decumulation: the quality of firms’ information collection and record-keeping; the appropriateness of client risk profiling; and sustainability of client income withdrawals.

Retirement income advice: good practice and areas for improvement | FCA

• Speech by Simon Walls, executive director of markets, on risk, reform and reward: On 10 June 2025, Simon Walls, executive director of markets, gave a speech at the Global Management Summit 2025. The speech emphasised the FCA’s commitment for backing growth and rebalancing risk.

In addition to discussing the growth strategy and risk appetite, Mr Walls also spoke about: the incoming reforms to prospectus rules; the new platform for trading private company shares (PISCES) which will assist with driving growth; efforts to unlock demand from UK investors and pension funds; and the FCA’s commitment to measures to make it easier for financial firms to operate in the UK.

Risk, reform, reward: Why the UK is the place to invest | FCA

• Assessment of value reporting for AFMs: On 6 June 2025, the FCA published quarterly consultation paper no 48 CP 25/16, setting out its proposals for reducing the assessment of value reporting requirements that apply to authorised fund managers. The FCA’s proposals involve removing certain prescriptive reporting requirements and replacing them with more general reporting requirements. Please see our article here for more information.

CP25/16: Quarterly Consultation Paper

• Motor finance redress: On 5 June 2025, the FCA published a statement on the key considerations it will take into account in designing a possible motor finance redress scheme. Significantly, the FCA noted that firms should not have to exit the market as a result of redress. Please see our article here on FCA redress schemes for more detail.

Key considerations in implementing a possible motor finance consumer redress scheme | FCA

• Speech Sarah Pritchard, executive director for supervision, policy and competition and international, on FCA strategy: On 5 June 2025, the executive director for supervision, policy and competition and international, Sarah Pritchard, gave a speech at Quoted Companies Alliance. The speech set out the actions the FCA is taking as part of its latest strategy to support growth, help consumers navigate their financial lives, fight financial crime and become a smarter regulator. In particular, Ms Pritchard discussed:
  • removing unnecessary frictions for investors (retail or institutional) so they can put their money to work;  
  • risk appetities; and
  • reforming the advice and guidance market so that people can access the help and guidance they need. Our recent article on the FCA’s proposals for bridging the advice gap is available here.

On risk, Ms Pritchard stated, “we know that – for far too long – we at the regulator have been seen as sheltering consumers. Of insulating people from risk. And focusing on the risks of a decision taken rather than the lost opportunity of taking none.” 

Funding our future: Building brilliant companies on the UK’s public markets | FCA

• Updated FCA Enforcement Guide: On 3 June 2025, the FCA published its enforcement investigation publicity policy and revised Enforcement Guide. These changes follow the FCA’s withdrawal, earlier this year, of its highly criticised name and shame proposals. The FCA has now confirmed three situations where there will be increased transparency when conducting investigations into regulated firms:
  • investigation of suspected unauthorised financial services, or a suspected offence relating to a regulated activity;
  • where the fact of the investigation has been made public by the subject, affiliated company or a regulatory body, government or public body; and
  • anonymised advertisements, without identifying the subject of the investigation, where it would be helpful to educate people on the misconduct being investigated.

Updated version of our Enforcement Guide published | FCA

PS25/5: Our Enforcement Guide and greater transparency of our enforcement investigations