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Welcome to our weekly round-up for UK financial services regulation. Paul Staples summarises the key announcements and developments. Be sure to subscribe to receive our updates in your inbox every week.
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This week, we lead with a recent speech from the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) covering its support for innovation across the UK banking and insurance sectors. While the detail here is specific to the remit of the PRA, as expected the central messaging bears close resemblance to that of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Crucially, the PRA’s activity in supporting growth is complemented and underpinned by a focus on maintaining a resilient financial sector.
Next up, as the legislative framework for Buy-Now, Pay-Later (BNPL) regulation takes shape, we highlight a recent adjustment to the proposed perimeter in keeping with the drive for proportionality. Elsewhere, we see the continuation of recent interactions between the FCA and the House of Lords Regulation Committee relating to enforcement activity.
Finally, this week, we look beyond the UK with the latest updates relating to payment services, as well as the results of the first coordinated mystery shopping exercise in the insurance sector across the EU.
Balancing innovation and regulation
David Bailey, the PRA’s Executive Director for Prudential Policy, recently gave a speech at Risk Live Europe discussing innovation in the UK banking and insurance sectors. His speech focuses on the role the PRA can play in supporting innovation, particularly since the Secondary Competitiveness and Growth Objective (SCGO) came into effect back in August 2023.
On the SCGO, Bailey outlines that the primary focus to date has been on streamlining and reducing the regulatory burden for firms, to encourage them to innovate and develop new products and services. Now, he sets out the PRA’s desire to develop different approaches to regulation depending on the innovation, such as taking a flexible approach towards regulating AI as it continues to evolve. This, he mentions, will only be possible through close stakeholder engagement to ensure that a balance is struck between flexibility and regulatory certainty.
Regarding AI, he emphasises the PRA's continuous internal innovation, such as utilising AI to enhance supervisory insights and to summarise meetings and documents. He asserts that this enables the regulator to conduct supervision in a more rapid, efficient, and focused manner.
The UK Government has recently confirmed that domestic premises suppliers, such as tradespeople or service providers who offer BNPL options in customers’ homes, will be exempt from needing full credit-broking authorisation under upcoming BNPL regulation. This is a change from the earlier draft BNPL regulation, which required them to hold such permissions.
The change follows concerns from small businesses and industry stakeholders that requiring full permissions would create unnecessary costs and regulatory burdens. The Government and the FCA agreed that domestic premises suppliers pose a relatively low risk to consumers, so the requirement was deemed disproportionate.
Despite the exemption, key consumer protections will remain in place, such as affordability checks, access to the Financial Ombudsman Service, and the Consumer Duty. The exemption will be implemented through a statutory instrument as part of a broader BNPL framework due later this year.
The FCA has responded to the House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee's report highlighting significant strides in enforcement. In FY24/25, the FCA says that it issued 37 Final Notices, secured five convictions, imposed financial penalties exceeding £186 million, and cancelled the authorisation of 1,453 firms. Notably, the number of open operations has decreased by over 35%, and the FCA has secured £442.3 million for investors and consumers through various redress schemes.
The FCA's says its efforts to expedite investigations have shown promising results, with recent investigations achieving public outcomes in less than 16 months, compared to an average of 42 months previously. The FCA states that it's committed to further improving transparency and efficiency in its enforcement processes.
The European Council (the Council) recently published an article outlining its agreed position on a more modern payment service framework in the EU. The modernisation aims to reduce payment fraud, promote technological innovation, better protect consumers, and increase transparency of fees. The proposals also aim to adapt the EU’s payment service landscape to new and innovative ways of making payments. The Council will now begin to negotiate the final text with the European Parliament.
The Council and European Parliament also reached a provisional agreement on new rules to make transactions in transferable securities more efficient. The new rules aim to shorten the cycles on securities trades from no later than two business days, to no later than one business day after the trade date. The Council and European Parliament will now formally adopt the new rules, which will apply from 11 October 2027.
The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has released findings from its first coordinated mystery shopping exercise on Insurance-Based Investment Products (IBIPs). The exercise, covering eight EU Member States, aimed at assessing the sales process and identifying areas for improvement.
The insights include:
Distributors often assessed investment horizons but were inconsistent in evaluating risk tolerance and sustainability preferences
Only 36% of shoppers received the Key Information Document, and 18% received sustainability disclosures
84% of products offered were consistent with at least one of the shoppers' needs, though there was limited correlation between the thoroughness of information gathering and product suitability
The EIOPA plans to engage with industry stakeholders and consumer associations to understand the varying levels of compliance. The findings will inform future policy work to simplify the sales process and improve consumer outcomes.
Operational resilience is now business as usual for the financial services sector. But how to embrace resilience by design as the business continues to evolve?
