From 1 October 2026, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) can dismiss complaints on a restructured set of grounds, including where a firm has already reviewed the matter under regulatory standards or where another body is dealing with it. A clarification of the fair and reasonable test in DISP 3.6.4R takes effect on the same date, but "good industry practice" stays for now, and a new registration stage is deferred to April 2027 at the earliest. These decisions are set out in

On 10 August 2026 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published High-growth firms: good and poor practice, setting out what it found when it engaged with 15 rapidly growing firms between July 2025 and March 2026. The publication introduces no new rules and carries no deadline. It is a statement of supervisory expectation: where governance, risk management and control frameworks have not kept pace with commercial growth, the FCA treats that gap as a source of harm and expect

On 6 July 2026 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published the Mills Review, an independent review of how artificial intelligence could reshape retail financial services by 2030 and beyond. The Review creates no new obligations. It makes seven recommendations to the FCA Board, and its central conclusion is that the existing framework, including the Consumer Duty, the Senior Managers Regime and operational resilience requirements, remains sound and will not be replaced by

On 27 July 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published Outcomes monitoring: good practice and areas for improvement, a review of how firms monitor consumer outcomes under the Consumer Duty. It introduces no new rules, no deadlines and no transitional arrangements. Its central message is that collecting data, listing metrics and reporting management information (MI) do not, by themselves, show that customers are receiving good outcomes. The FCA expects a firm to be a

On 2 July 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published Consultation Paper CP26/24, Simplifying Consumer Investment Disclosures. It proposes to consolidate the cost and charges disclosure rules currently split across the Conduct of Business Sourcebook (COBS) into a single new chapter, COBS 6A, covering business under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), the Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD) and other designated investment business. Nothing in t

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is consulting on changes that would narrow the territorial scope of its insurance conduct rules, remove several disclosure requirements, give firms more freedom over how they communicate with customers, simplify the boundary for advised sales, and redenominate minimum professional indemnity insurance limits into sterling. The proposals appear in Consultation Paper CP26/22, published on 29 June 2026, and the consultation closes on 4 Septem