The FCA is committed to supporting growth.
The financial services sector is the engine of the country’s economy. A successful sector drives prosperity for companies, getting money to flow to small and medium-sized businesses allowing them to invest and grow.
The UK is a magnet for talent and investment, with London ranking as the world’s second financial centre. We are the world leader for international bond issuance, foreign exchange trading and cross-border banking. The UK’s asset management, hedge fund and private equity sectors continue to be the largest in Europe, alongside our insurance and long-term savings market.
We’re a partner for growth and we support the Chancellor’s vision for achieving it. Our regulation enables a fair and thriving financial services sector that allows people to spend, save and invest in their own future.
We have fully embraced our secondary international competitiveness and growth objective, embedding it into our processes, policy making and culture. We’ve established a dedicated team to advise on implementing the new objective and our policy work now clearly articulates how we have applied the objective.
Our reform of UK listing rules – the most significant in 3 decades – aims to encourage a wide range of companies to list and raise capital in the UK, increasing opportunities for investors.
A new platform to allow private companies to trade their securities (PISCES) will support companies to scale up and grow and provide investors with better access to exciting companies. We are engaging market participants, industry leaders, trade bodies and exchanges to develop a proportionate regulatory framework and we look forward to publishing our consultation shortly.
We’ve provided asset managers greater freedom in how they pay for research and are streamlining complex EU rules in the alternative asset management sector, cementing our position as the world’s second largest asset management hub.
Wholesale market firms wishing to expand into the UK can now benefit from our dedicated pre-application support service. We’re supporting UK and international insurance brokers by clarifying our conduct rules and distribution services.
In response to the Mansion House speech, we have published updates on specific issues raised in the speech:
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings
Advice Guidance Boundary Review
National payment strategy
Modernising the redress system
We will work quickly with the Government, industry, consumer groups and other interested parties as we deliver this important work.
Recognising the vital role we play in enabling new firms to get off the ground, we have improved our authorisation process with 98% of cases now assessed within statutory deadlines, up from 78.9% in Q1 of 2022/23. Our innovation services, such as sandboxes, support firms to test drive and refine their innovative new products while our early and high growth oversight programme helps new firms meet standards so they can grow.
And we have been seeking views on how we seize the opportunity of the Consumer Duty to streamline our rulebook, so we can lower costs for businesses and support the competitiveness and growth of the economy.
When it comes to growth, regulation is one part of the picture. We know there’s more to do but we are committed to playing our part.
