The Financial Services Act 2012 (FSA 2012) received Royal assent on 19 December 2012 and went into effect on 1 April 2013. The Act 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). This Practice Note outlines the changes to the UK financial services regulatory framework that were introduced under the Act.

FSA 2012 followed a series of public consultations. A draft Bill was published in July 2011, and was scrutinised by a Joint Committee of both Houses, which published its report on the draft Bill on 19 December 2011. The Financial Services Bill was laid before Parliament in January 2012. More information on the progress of the Bill is available on the Parliament website.

The Act was implemented through secondary legislation that provided much of the detail governing the regulatory structure, for instance, how regulated activities are divided between the authorities and establishing the ‘threshold conditions’ that firms must satisfy to become