Reshaping regulation, deliberately

In her Investment Association Annual Dinner address, FCA deputy chief executive Sarah Pritchard framed the UK regulatory agenda as entering a post-peak rule-making phase, with the emphasis shifting from drafting new requirements to making the existing framework work harder for growth, competitiveness and consumer outcomes. For compliance and product teams, the strategic signal matters more than any single rule change: the regulator is prioritising a stronger retail investment culture, built on better consumer support and clearer understanding of both the risks of investing and the costs of staying out of markets. Three practical themes emerge.

First, the reformed advice and guidance regime, including targeted support, means firms should revisit how they segment customers, design lower-cost support journeys and document consumer outcomes. Second, the move away from prescriptive disclosure toward Consumer Duty-style outcome accountability raises the bar on evidencing that communications and support actually help customers decide. Third, the FCA has confirmed further work to give firms confidence to offer simplified, lower-cost advice at scale, so propositions currently parked on regulatory uncertainty should be reassessed.

Compliance leaders should treat this as a direction-of-travel notice rather than a compliance deadline. Priorities: map existing advice and guidance models against the emerging targeted support and simplified advice expectations; stress-test disclosure simplification under Consumer Duty outcomes testing; and prepare governance to capture evidencing of consumer understanding. Firms that move early on lower-cost support models may gain a competitive advantage; those that wait for final rules risk compressed implementation timelines.

Watch for forthcoming FCA publications on simplified advice.