Author: Priscilla Gaudoin - Head of Risk & Compliance - published June 2025
Topics: Regulatory initiatives, Insurers, Asset Managers, Financial Advisers
Regions and Regulators: UK, FCA, PRA, Bank of England
%2024-25%201.png?width=150&height=161&name=Recognised%20CPD%20Badge%20(transparent)%2024-25%201.png)
8th edition of the Regulatory Initiatives Grid published April 2025
The 8th edition of the Regulatory Initiatives Grid (Grid) was published in April 2025. It sets out more than 90 ongoing or upcoming policy and regulatory actions over the next 24 months affecting UK firms. The Grid signals a deeper regulatory intent to recalibrate UK financial regulation to support growth, competitiveness, innovation, and streamlining regulation.
For financial firms, especially insurers, asset managers and financial advisers, this creates both opportunities and challenges in aligning their governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) models to remain proactive in their endeavours.
What are the key messages for the regulated firms, and how does this schedule of work support the FCA’s strategy?
FCA Strategy to 2030:
The FCA’s recently published 5-year strategy showcases how its short- to medium-term regulatory priorities support its long-term vision of becoming a smarter, more responsive, and growth-focused regulator.
Figure 1: FCA strategy
Smarter Regulation
The Grid illustrates the FCA’s drive to streamline regulation and remove unnecessary burdens. Examples include:
- Reducing regulatory reporting requirements and simplifying authorisation processes
- Projects like the MyFCA portal and its initiative to eliminate duplicate data templates directly support the strategy’s goal of improved supervisory efficiency and digital capability.
- The plan to consolidate the Payment Services Regulator into the FCA aligns with the goal of reducing fragmentation in oversight.
These activities support the goal of improving processes while maintaining strong oversight.
Supporting Growth
Other activities reflect the FCA’s commitment to supporting the UK’s financial services as a global hub.
- Initiatives include the Digital Securities Sandbox, reforming Solvency II, simplifying liquidity rules for small firms, and the Matching Adjustment Investment Accelerator (MA Investment Accelerator).
- There is a clear focus on proportionate, tailored regulation to foster innovation and international competitiveness.
Proportional Regulation
The FCA removed the Consumer Duty Board Champion requirement in February 2025 without consultation, signalling a move toward more tailored supervisory interventions. It also delayed and, in some cases, halted some initiatives, (eg diversity, and inclusion rule finalisation) to avoid regulatory duplication, showing its agility and responsiveness.
Coordination and System-Wide Supervision
Anticipated activities also include increased cross-regulatory collaboration via the Regulatory Initiatives Forum. We see more joint initiatives across FCA, PRA, Bank of England and other stakeholders to reinforce system-wide oversight and collective risk management. All of which are central to supporting a coordinated whole-system supervisory model set out in the FCA’s Strategy.
The Grid is a strategic roadmap showing how the regulators intend to:
- Streamline regulation and reduce unnecessary costs
- Improve data collection and supervision through tech investments
- Support innovation and competitiveness
- Move toward more proportionate and risk-based regulation.
Firms should prepare by:
- Reviewing timelines for key initiatives (eg Basel 3.1 delay, payments regulation reform)
- Engaging with tech-driven regulatory tools (eg MyFCA)
- Aligning internal transformation efforts with the FCA’s push for digital agility and reduced burden
Key Messages by Sector:
Insurers:
- Solvency II review and MA investment accelerator
PRA is progressing its reforms aimed at increasing investment flexibility and reducing reporting burdens under Solvency II. This includes changes to matching adjustment (MA) eligibility, which means potentially expanding investment options for insurers.
- Climate and Sustainability Disclosures
Insurers should expect continued development of climate-related disclosures frameworks aligned with ISSB standards and TCFD evolution.
Insurers must review capital and investment strategies in light of upcoming prudential adjustments and prepare for evolving ESG disclosure expectations.
Asset Managers:
- UK Retail Disclosure Regime
With the repeal of the PRIIPs Regulation under the Financial Services & Markets Act 2023, new UK-specific retail disclosure rules are under development. This will simplify product information but require adjustments to marketing and investor communication strategies.
- Long-Term Asst Fund (LTAF) Reforms
Regulatory encouragement for broader use of LTAFs continues, with further guidance expected around liquidity matching and retail access.
Fund managers must re-evaluate product governance, retail strategy and client documentation in preparation for disclosure and access reforms.
Financial Advisers:
- Consumer Duty Implementation Monitoring
The FCA is increasing supervision on how advisers embed the Consumer Duty principles, particularly focusing on fair value and customer outcomes.
- Advisory Guidance Boundary Review
The FCA and HM Treasury are working to redefine the boundary between advice and guidance, which may open up new models for hybrid services and automated advice.
Advisers should review advice processes and client categorisation frameworks and start assessing how automated advice tools might evolve with regulatory support.
Cross-Sector Strategic Themes:
There are some key themes which touch upon most sectors.
- Digital Securities Sandbox
The launch of this new sandbox marks a push towards tokenised financial instruments and LDT-enabled trading infrastructure, impacting fund managers and insurers exploring digital asset strategies.
- Basel 3.1 Delay
Whilst more relevant to banks, the one-year delay to 2027 indicates efforts to align with US regulators and a broader trend of regulatory pragmatism
- Data Transformation
A recurring message. We see the FCA and PRA consolidating data requests, retiring low-usage templates, and introducing firm portals to simply reporting and reduce duplication.
On reviewing the Grid and the proposed activities, there are three key areas where all firms need to focus attention.
Figure 2: Areas of focus
- Regulatory Agility
Firms must become more proactive in ensuring compliance by embracing dynamic compliance programmes that include horizon scanning, regulatory change tracking and scenario planning.
Armed with the data and intelligence garnered from these systems, compliance teams can become more proactive and focus on attention where it is needed before risks materialise.
- Investment in Technology
We’ve seen the UK regulators embracing technology by embedding SupTech into their oversight models. This results in streamlined data reporting. Firms need to consider what data is required and how it will be obtained and utilised to manage risk effectively.
- Accountability
Another recurring theme is that of senior management engagement with regulatory change programmes. Regulators want to see firms demonstrate governance, especially under the Senior Managers & Certification Regime.
The April 2025 Grid reflects a dynamic UK regulatory landscape shaped by post-Brexit independence, political change and technological innovation. Firms across financial services must engage early with the regulatory agenda to remain resilient, competitive and compliant.
Next Steps:
Firms are encouraged to engage with the consultations and calls for input especially regarding Advice Boundary Guidance and sustainability disclosures.
On operational resilience, firms should be aware of heightened regulatory focus and expectations on incident responses, testing and reporting.
During 2025, we can expect the FCA’s supervisory reviews to focus on fairness and communications standards in legacy offerings.
How Ruleguard Helps The Financial sector:
Ruleguard's GRC software helps firms to embed compliance into fabric of the firm. This means that compliance teams can track and monitor that key activities or tasks have been completed. The management information garnered from these activities enables compliance to have oversight of the business and to pinpoint any outliers for further investigation.
If you’d like to learn more about Ruleguard's GRC Solutions please contact us for further information on: Tel: 0800 408 3845 or hello@ruleguard.com.
Related Webinars, White Papers and Blogs
Ruleguard hosts regular events on various regulatory topics. You can watch our webinars on-demand at your convenience, or read our blogs, white papers, infographics, and tune in to our podcasts.
- UK Financial Services Regulatory Initiatives Forum
- Financial Services and Markets Bill brings broader remit for regulators
- Regulatory Initiatives Forum Update
Webinars:
White papers:
Embed compliance into your firm's DNA
About the author
In a career spanning 30 years, Priscilla has worked as a consultant, CCO and MLRO providing regulatory oversight and advice to firms across the financial services industry. She is responsible for our thought leadership programme, writing regular articles and white papers, and hosting webinars on a variety of regulatory matters.
She is a Fellow of the International Compliance Association, a certified GRC practitioner, and a member of the Institute of Risk Management.
