UK regulators—financial services

This overview is a guide to the Financial Services content within the UK regulators—financial services subtopic, with links to the appropriate materials.

UK financial services regulatory framework

The Financial Services Act 2012 (FSA 2012) amended the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA 2000) and replaced the Financial Services Authority (FSA) with two new regulators—the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA)—and created a new Financial Policy Committee (FPC) of the Bank of England (BoE). For more information, see Practice Note: Financial Services Act 2012 [Archived].

Firms that are dual-regulated, such as banks, insurers and major investment firms, are supervised by the PRA for prudential areas and by the FCA for conduct areas. All other firms are supervised by the FCA for both conduct and prudential issues. FSA 2012 also gave the FCA new powers to regulate benchmarks and transferred responsibility for the regulation of consumer credit from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to the FCA. The FCA also performs the functions previously carried out by the FSA as UK Listing Authority.

The FPC has responsibility for

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Latest Financial Services News

Financial Services—other developments (21/7/2025)

A round-up of other developments, which have not been covered in full by the LexisNexis Financial Services practical guidance team but may nevertheless be of interest.

FMI supervision—BoE and FCA report on 2025 MoU review

The Bank of England (BoE) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have published a joint statement following their annual review of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the supervision of financial market infrastructure (FMI). The MoU, updated in 2024 to reflect changes introduced by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (FSMA 2023), sets out arrangements for cooperation between the regulators, including information sharing and efforts to reduce duplication of regulatory activity. As part of the 2025 review, the BoE and FCA invited feedback from central counterparties, recognised investment exchanges and recognised central securities depositories based on their 2024 interactions. Respondents reported coordinated engagement across policy and supervisory matters and referred to joint work on operational resilience, including consultations on operational incident and third-party reporting. The statement also refers to collaboration on initiatives such as the Digital Securities Sandbox and T+1 settlement. The BoE and FCA stated that they intend to continue coordinated supervision and to consider any areas for improvement identified by firms.

FCDO announces reduction in Russian crude Oil Price Cap mechanism

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has announced that the UK and EU will reduce the Russian crude oil price cap from $60 to $47.60 per barrel, effective 2 September 2025. The measure maintains existing caps on refined products. A 45-day wind-down period until 17 October 2025 applies to trades contracted before the implementation date that comply with the current $60 cap. The action modifies the December 2022 price cap mechanism that prohibits G7 companies from providing shipping and insurance services for Russian oil sold above the cap price.

EU Commission statement on proposed regulation to streamline financial services reporting

The European Commission (the Commission) has confirmed that it agrees with the Council of the EU’s position on the proposed regulation amending the ESRB Regulation, the EBA Regulation, EIOPA Regulation, the ESMA Regulation, the SRM Regulation, the InvestEU Programme Regulation and the AML Authority Regulation (Regulations (EU) 1092/2010, 1093/2010, 1094/2010, 1095/2010, 806/2014, 2021/523 and 2024/1620), as issued by the Council of the EU on 16 July 2025. The Commission has confirmed that it accepts the Council’s position at first reading although the Commission notes that the Council’s compromise text is weaker than the Commission’s original proposal.

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