With the publication of the latest Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) and Practitioner Panel annual survey, the FCA has reported a significant rise in firms’ satisfaction, confidence and trust in the regulator. The findings provide an important insight into how regulated firms view the FCA’s performance as it enters the second year of its 2025–2030 strategy.
The latest results suggest that firms are increasingly confident in the FCA’s approach to regulation, particularly in relation to consumer protection, market integrity and supporting growth and competitiveness. At the same time, the survey highlights areas where firms expect further progress, including reducing regulatory burden and improving the clarity of the FCA’s priorities.
This represents an important moment for the UK financial services sector. As the FCA continues to balance strong consumer protection with its secondary objective to facilitate the international competitiveness of the UK economy and its growth in the medium to long term, effective engagement between firms and the regulator will become increasingly important.
Firms Confidence in the FCA
The latest survey demonstrates a notable improvement in firms’ perceptions of the FCA.
The proportion of firms reporting high satisfaction with their relationship with the FCA increased from 74% to 79%, while the proportion rating the FCA as a highly effective regulator increased from 69% to 76%.
In addition, 75% of firms reported high levels of trust in the FCA. Firms expressed the greatest confidence in the FCA’s work to:
- Protect consumers: 87%;
- Ensure markets work well: 85%; and
- Enhance the integrity of the UK financial system: 85%.
These results indicate growing confidence in the FCA’s ability to deliver against its core regulatory objectives while adapting to the changing needs of the UK financial services sector.
Key Findings
- Confidence in Consumer Protection
Consumer protection remains at the heart of the FCA’s regulatory approach, and firms continue to express strong confidence in the regulator’s work in this area.
The survey found that 87% of firms were confident in the FCA’s work to protect consumers, the highest level of confidence across the FCA’s core areas of responsibility.
This supports the continued implementation of the Consumer Duty, which requires firms to focus on delivering good outcomes for retail customers.
The FCA has also reported a significant increase in firms’ understanding of its expectations under the Consumer Duty. 88% of firms now say they understand what the FCA expects regarding supporting consumers and embedding the Consumer Duty throughout the Firm.
This suggests that the FCA’s increased guidance and engagement with firms is helping translate the principles of Consumer Duty into practical expectations.
- Focus on Growth and Competitiveness
A key development in the latest survey is the significant increase in firms’ understanding and confidence in the FCA’s Secondary International Competitiveness and Growth Objective.
There was a 27% increase in firms’ understanding of the objective, alongside a 25% increase in confidence in the FCA’s delivery of it.
This reflects the increasing importance of competitiveness and medium- to long-term growth within the FCA’s regulatory strategy.
The FCA has also introduced nearly 50 pro-growth measures aimed at supporting UK competitiveness and innovation during the first year of its strategy.
For firms, this creates an increasingly important need to understand not only the FCA’s traditional regulatory objectives, but also how regulatory expectations interact with innovation, growth and competitiveness.
- Embedding Consumer Duty
The latest survey demonstrates continued progress in firms’ understanding of the Consumer Duty.
Following feedback from the previous year’s survey, the FCA provided additional guidance to help firms embed the Duty. The increase to 88% of firms reporting a strong understanding of expectations suggests that these efforts are having a positive impact.
However, understanding the FCA’s expectations is only the first step.
Firms must continue to demonstrate how Consumer Duty is embedded throughout their business, including within:
- Product and service design;
- Customer communications;
- Customer support;
- Governance and oversight;
- Monitoring and testing; and
- Management information and outcome assessments.
The focus is increasingly moving from understanding the Consumer Duty to demonstrating how it operates effectively in practice.
- Reducing Regulatory Burden
Despite the positive findings, the survey also highlights areas where firms believe further improvements are required.
Regulatory burden remains a key concern, particularly in relation to the volume and complexity of information firms are required to provide to the FCA.
The FCA has acknowledged this feedback and is already taking steps to simplify reporting requirements. It has decommissioned outdated reporting returns across more than 90% of regulated firms, with the changes expected to save firms approximately £16 million annually.
This demonstrates a growing emphasis on making regulation more proportionate and efficient while maintaining appropriate supervisory oversight.
For firms, this should encourage continued engagement with regulatory reporting requirements and a review of whether internal processes are sufficiently efficient, accurate and proportionate.
The FCA’s Strategy in Action
The survey results come as the FCA reaches the end of the first year of its 2025–2030 strategy.
During this period, the FCA estimates that it has delivered £5.6 billion in benefits to consumers and the economy, alongside the launch of My FCA, reductions in reporting burdens and a range of measures intended to support competitiveness and innovation.
The FCA has also continued to progress significant regulatory reforms, including:
- Regulation of Buy Now Pay Later products;
- The development of a new cryptoasset regulatory regime;
- Modernisation of the redress framework;
- Support for the Advice Guidance Boundary Review; and
- Progression of the PISCES private markets framework.
Together, these initiatives demonstrate the scale of regulatory change facing firms across the UK financial services market.
Building Confidence Through Effective Regulatory Engagement
The FCA’s latest survey signals a positive shift in firms’ perceptions of the regulator, with satisfaction, effectiveness and trust all showing meaningful increases.
At the same time, the FCA recognises that there is further work to do. Reducing unnecessary regulatory burden, improving clarity around regulatory outcomes and supporting sustainable growth will remain important as the FCA progresses its five-year strategy.
For firms, the message is clear: regulatory compliance is increasingly about more than meeting minimum requirements. Firms that maintain strong governance, understand regulatory expectations and proactively engage with regulatory change will be better positioned to respond to the evolving UK financial services landscape.
As the FCA continues to balance consumer protection, market integrity and competitiveness, stronger collaboration between the regulator and industry can support a more confident, innovative and resilient UK financial services sector.
How Complyport Can Help:
The FCA’s latest survey highlights the importance of firms maintaining a strong understanding of regulatory expectations while adapting to continued regulatory change. As the FCA focuses increasingly on consumer outcomes, competitiveness and proportionate regulation, firms need robust frameworks that can evolve alongside these priorities.
Complyport provides specialist regulatory support to help firms navigate changing FCA expectations and strengthen their regulatory frameworks. Our experienced team can assist with:
- Regulatory Gap Assessments: Reviewing firms’ existing governance, policies, procedures and controls against FCA expectations to identify areas requiring enhancement.
- Consumer Duty Implementation: Helping firms embed Consumer Duty requirements across their business models, customer journeys, governance frameworks and monitoring arrangements to demonstrate good consumer outcomes.
- Regulatory Change Support: Helping firms understand the impact of new FCA rules, guidance and regulatory priorities and translate these developments into practical changes across their businesses.
- Governance and Compliance Framework Reviews: Assessing governance, risk management and compliance frameworks to ensure they remain proportionate, effective and aligned with the firm’s evolving business model.
- Regulatory Engagement and Authorisation Support: Supporting firms in preparing for FCA engagement, authorisation and variations of permission, including application reviews and end-to-end regulatory support.
If your firm needs support in understanding how the FCA’s evolving priorities may affect its regulatory obligations, Complyport can help. Contact Complyport to discuss your requirements and book a meeting with one of our Subject Matter Experts.
Discover how Complyport can support your compliance needs. Visit https://complyport.tech/ to learn more about our RegTech solutions.
