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What has happened?

The FCA recently published its Business Plan for 2018/19, which sets out the key priorities for the coming year. This is available here.

The priorities in this year’s Business Plan reflect the high level of resource the FCA needs to dedicate to European Union withdrawal, given its impact both on regulation and the firms it regulates.

Alongside this work, the FCA will focus on seven cross-sector priority areas, based on assessments of where there is the greatest harm or potential for harm, and where intervention can have the greatest impact. The priority areas are:

• Firms’ culture and governance which should drive behaviours and produce outcomes likely to benefit consumers and markets
• High-cost credit, building on the significant impact already made in the market
• Tackling financial crime, including fraud, scams and anti-money laundering to make the UK financial services sector a hostile place for criminals and a safe place for consumers
• Data security, resilience and outsourcing, since technology plays a pivotal role in delivering financial products and services
• Innovation, big data, technology and competition which are driving change in markets
• The treatment of existing customers to ensure that they do not get less attention or receive poorer outcomes than new customers
• Long-term savings, pensions and intergenerational differences which reflect the changing UK population and their financial needs

Alongside the Business Plan, the FCA is also publishing its annual fees Consultation Paper, Sector Views and a Discussion Paper on its evaluation framework.

The FCA has said that it will make it harder for firms advising on high-risk investments to become authorised as it plans to place tougher oversight on them. In its business plan, the regulator placed long-term savings and pensions as one of its seven core focus areas.

Within this, the FCA said work was in place to target high-risk and complex investments. The plan reads: “In 2018/19, we will carry out a programme of work to tackle incidences of consumers entering into high-risk investments which are unsuitable for their needs. This work will enable us to identify where there are problems with high-risk investments. We will also strengthen our authorisations gateway and supervision for firms that provide advice on high-risk and complex investments. This will ensure they improve their disclosure and reduce the risks of harm to retail investors.”

How can Thistle help you?

Thistle will continue to keep this area under review and will issue further updates where necessary. Please contact us if you need assistance in relation to any of these issues.