The FCA’s consultation on simplifying advice rules is a structural reset for the UK advice market. It is not a dilution of standards. It is a move toward clearer, more proportionate regulation, with Consumer Duty as the anchor.
The recent NVIDIA keynote set out a clear direction for AI. The key message is simple: the industry is moving from building models to running them continuously in real-world use.
Governance, risk and compliance (GRC) frameworks are becoming central to how UK financial advice firms’ networks and support services demonstrate accountability. For FCA directly authorised firms, restricted advice firms and principal firms overseeing appointed representatives (ARs), regulatory expectations increasingly require structured governance supported by clear oversight and independent internal audit.
The recent HMT consultation on reform of the Appointed Representative (AR) regime signals that the structure remains under close scrutiny. While the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has already strengthened its supervisory framework through PS22/11, HMT is clearly testing whether further structural reform is required to address harm within principal–AR models.
As we enter a new year, it provides us with an opportunity to review the past years activities and look ahead at what is to come. Indeed January is named after the Roman god Janus, who had two faces so he could see the past and future. What Janus may have told us from a regulatory perxpective.is the FCA are 'one one' with their future vision and learning from the past when it comes to firms regulation data and compliance analytics.
The ongoing focus on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investment highlights the financial services industry's ongoing instrumental role in the transition to net-zero, through its ability to mobilise capital and engage with investors, companies and citizens.
This is a topic that often comes up across social media and conferences that focus on FinTech developments within retail financial services industry. There is no doubt with the fast growing digital ‘fourth revolution’, we are witnessing rapid build and deployment of tech throughout industry products and services.
Let’s start with the top three challenges firm’s face when it comes to GRC management.
We currently have a festival of football with the UEFA European Championship, and you can be assured that each national team coach will be using data analytics to assess their own and opposition teams and players strengths, weaknesses and winning formations.
As of May 2021, RegData completely replaced Gabriel as the FCA’s platform for data collection after a lengthy roll-out to 52,000 firms and 120,000 users. Firms and their users were moved to RegData in groups, based on their reporting requirements.