FCA to take greater risks for growth, eyes digital finance

The FCA plans ambitious reforms to unlock capital investment and accelerate digital innovation.

Key initiatives include implementing a new prospectus regime to ease retail access to corporate bonds and enable a private company market.

The regulator will also launch a consolidated tape for accessible fixed income data and accelerate a review of capital requirements for specialised trading firms to improve liquidity.

On digital innovation, the FCA aims for a UK financial services digital infrastructure plan, spearheaded by a new Executive Director for Payments and Digital Finance.

This includes accelerating T+1 securities settlement, moving to electronic securities, progressing a digital securities sandbox, and developing open finance, potentially prioritising SME lending.

The FCA also considers removing the £100 contactless limit for greater flexibility.

The FCA aims to significantly reduce regulatory burden by streamlining its handbook and improving accessibility with a machine-readable version.

It will also collaborate with the Bank of England/PRA to reduce reporting requirements.

Key changes include removing the Consumer Duty Board Champion and simplifying responsible lending and advice rules for mortgages.

To foster firm growth, the FCA will provide a dedicated case officer to every regulatory sandbox participant and increase dedicated supervisors for early and high-growth firms by 50%.

Pre-application support will be extended to all wholesale, payments, and crypto firms.

The regulator will also more frequently signal 'minded to approve' for promising start-ups to aid funding.