Your guide to this week in regulation

This week, we lead with a major announcement from the Home Office and HM Treasury aiming to strengthen the fight against illicit finance in the form of a new Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy. This sets out no fewer than 50 system-wide actions under its far-reaching delivery plan.

Next up, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published highly anticipated guidance (in coordination with the release of certain legislative refinements) to help firms prepare for the UK’s incoming cryptoasset regime, with the authorisation gateway opening imminently on 30 September.

Meanwhile, as the FCA’s consultation on the scope of the Consumer Duty for wholesale firms closes, a new consultation opens proposing limited changes to general insurance value measures.

We conclude this week with findings from the FCA’s joint exercise with the Ministry of Defence on systemic risk and national resilience which calls for a society-wide response.

Government latest measures on money laundering

The Home Office and HM Treasury have recently announced a package of measures to disrupt money laundering networks and strengthen asset recovery. The new Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy will see 500 new officers deployed across police forces, the National Crime Agency and the Crown Prosecution Service, backed by £500m of investment over three years from the Economic Crime Levy.

The strategy follows a year in which almost £350m was recovered from criminals and more than £1bn denied to them, with convictions for money laundering rising to almost 4,000. The National Crime Agency estimates more than £100bn is laundered through the UK or UK corporate structures each year. Steve Smart, the Financial Conduct Authority’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight, has welcomed the strategy  which is expected to achieve more consistent oversight and to help identify and disrupt crime.

Read more on the £500m anti-money laundering and asset recovery strategy

Read the Anti-money laundering and asset recovery strategy

FCA prepares to open crypto authorisation gateway

The FCA has published perimeter guidance to help firms understand how the UK’s future cryptoasset regime applies to their business. The guidance sets out which activities may require authorisation, including issuing qualifying stablecoins, operating trading platforms, dealing and arranging deals, safeguarding cryptoassets and arranging cryptoasset staking.

The regime comes into force on 25 October 2027, with the authorisation gateway soon to open on 30 September 2026. 

The government has also issued targeted changes to the underlying legislation, including some limited exclusions. Firms can rely on the new guidance to prepare now, although the FCA is expected to further consult in October 2026 on updates to reflect these latest legal amendments.

David Geale, the FCA’s executive director of consumers, payments and competition, described the guidance as giving firms a clearer basis for preparing their applications with confidence. 

Read more on the FCA’s cryptoasset perimeter guidance

Consumer Duty wholesale consultation closed

The FCA’s consultation on the scope and proportionality of the Consumer Duty for wholesale firms is now closed. Published in June, CP26/23 proposed targeted changes aimed primarily at wholesale and internationally active firms, although the changes will also affect firms that manufacture and distribute products to retail customers.

The proposals covered: 

• clearer boundaries for activities such as market making, custody and safeguarding, which would generally fall outside the Duty’s scope;
• clarified accountability along distribution chains, removing duplication between firms working together; and
• a narrower territorial scope, excluding business conducted for genuinely non-UK customers from the Duty’s requirements.

The FCA confirms the Duty remains focused on retail outcomes and plans a further consultation on client classification later in the year. It expects to publish a policy statement and new rules in the first quarter of 2027.

Read more on CP26/23: Consumer Duty for wholesale firms

FCA reviews general insurance value measures 

The FCA has completed its post-implementation review of the general insurance value measures rules, first introduced in 2021, and is consulting on two minor changes to reduce the reporting burden on firms. Published on 11 September, CP26/33 follows feedback gathered from a sample of firms that report value measures data on products such as motor and home insurance.

The review found the rules continue to meet their aim of improving transparency on product value, although some firms raised concerns about the practicalities of reporting. The proposed changes are limited in scope and are intended to ease compliance without weakening the underlying reporting requirements. The FCA has confirmed it intends to consult separately on wider changes to the value measures framework in the first half of 2027.

Firms that report general insurance value measures data have until 9 October 2026 to respond to the current proposals, with a further, more substantial consultation to follow.

Read more on CP26/33: general insurance value measures

FCA and MoD test systemic resilience

The FCA has published findings from a joint exercise with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) testing how financial services firms would cope with challenging scenarios, including a cyberattack on a cable landing station and regional satellite navigation spoofing. Around 120 leaders from financial services, government and defence took part in the Defence, Security and Resilience Lab.

The exercise looked beyond firm-level testing to consider how hostile activity, supply chain disruption and dual-use technology, such as drones, could affect both market integrity and wider national security. The FCA identified a gap in how firms think about dependencies and risk at a system level, noting that shared dependencies between firms can be difficult to map and that measuring the value of resilience investment remains a challenge.

The FCA plans further work on intelligence sharing and back-up technologies, and has set out six questions to help firms initially assess their own exposure to systemic risk.

Read more on the FCA and MoD Defence, Security and Resilience Lab