FCA Updates are Changing in Ruleguard

From next month, the FCA is changing the way it supplies the Handbook to third-party providers like Ruleguard.

We're taking this opportunity to improve the regulatory update experience for any customers who currently receive FCA changes as part of their Ruleguard subscription, who will now receive these updates via the enhanced "Regulatory Updates" feature for global regulation.

Smarter Regulatory Subscriptions & Updates

The Regulatory Updates flow improves how you and your compliance team can stay on top of regulatory change in Ruleguard.

Customers who adopt the Regulatory Updates solution can subscribe to a broad range of UK and global regulation and automatically receive notifications of the latest rules and updates. When updates are found, you can process these through a 'staged workflow' that you can design*.

As always, rule updates brought into Ruleguard can then be mapped directly to your other information like Topics, Processes, Risks and Controls.

Existing customers who already receive updates to the FCA handbook will automatically receive limited access to aspects of the Regulatory Updates solution, allowing you to use these powerful features to process the changes received from the FCA. This means that you will continue to receive all of the same rule changes that you did before, with the increased flexibility and power of the Regulatory Updates solution.

You don't need to take any action to make this happen, but you should familiarise yourself with how the changes will affect the way that you view and manage updates - read on for more information about that.

And of course, if you would like to talk to us about using the full power of the Regulatory Updates solution for further flexibility or keeping track of rules beyond your current scope, please just get in touch.

*Customisation requires the Advanced Regulatory Updates Module.  Please contact your Customer Success Manager, Implementations Consultant or support@ruleguard.com for more information.

New Features

Workflows for Regulatory Updates

Instead of receiving static updates, your team can now push new or amended rules through a workflow of your own design*  (for example adding review, approval, and documentation step) before the rules are published within the system.

Different groups of Users may be assigned to different Stages to better triage new updates to relevant teams. Comments may be added, and Update Tasks may be launched at each Stage to help manage next steps.

Rules from certain providers may be tagged for better grouping and collation under key themes such as regulatory topics, obligation types, entity applicability and so on.

As always the system will maintain a complete history of rule changes, approvals, and mappings ensuring you maintain full audit readiness.

*Existing FCA Handbook customers will have the Standard Regulatory Updates Module and accompanying workflow applied.  Customised Workflows are available for Customers with the Advanced Regulatory Updates Module.  Please contact your Customer Success Manager, Implementations Consultant or support@ruleguard.com for more information.

Example of a customised Regulatory Updates Workflow

Superior Change Notification

Users will receive a daily digest of all regulator updates received within last 24 hours via email and in-app notifications**.

**Configured 'Stage Users' on the opening Stage will receive new update email alerts.  Users may be allocated the Customise Requirement Updates permission to manage this list.

In the system, updates are clearly labelled (new, edited, superseded, deleted) and you have the the ability to review all changes via the comparison feature.


 

Updates Management

In addition to Updates now being delivered directly to Stage Users’ Inboxes, Updates can also be accessed via bookmarks (that can be assigned to specific Roles) that navigate to interactive matrices.

These matrices support pinning, advanced filtering, and custom queries, allowing Users to better manage workloads and filter key items.

Global Coverage Beyond the UK

Previously non-Advanced Regulatory Update Module customers could only receive Handbook feeds for the UK market, specifically the FCA Handbook. With the Regulatory Updates feature firms can now receive additional updates from a comprehensive and growing global library of regulators (including the SEC, FINRA, ESMA, FATF, and more). You can review available regulation from the Subscribe page and request more information for you and your firm, and we'll be happy to discuss how you can take up our full solution for access to everything you see.

What Happens Next - Key Dates

• We’re migrating all FCA Handbook customers to the Regulatory Updates feature with a target of week beginning 20 Oct 2025 (preparatory features will be released Friday 17 Oct 2025 and most changes will be applied/observable from the following week onwards).

• The FCA Handbook page remains functional until 17:30 Friday 31 Oct 2025 - any new updates can still be received and accepted here until that time.
• FCA Handbook page is retired from 03 Nov 2025 - after this date, updates will be received through the Regulatory Updates feature when they are next published by the FCA.
• Please ensure all pending FCA Handbook Rule changes are accepted before 17:30 Friday 31 Oct 2025 to avoid a lock on pre-31 Oct 2025 updates.
  • The first new Update within a Chapter after the migrations will re-present all Rules in a Chapter for acceptance, including any updates.
• If you'd like more information, please reach out to your Customer Success Managers, Implementation Consultants, or email us at support@ruleguard.com.