Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
The UK conduct regulator for financial services firms and markets, and prudential regulator for firms not supervised by the PRA.
Overview
The FCA authorises firms and individuals, writes the FCA Handbook including the Consumer Duty, supervises conduct, enforces against misconduct and can prosecute certain offences. It coined the term RegTech.
Its powers include writing binding rules, supervising and examining the organisations it oversees, granting and withdrawing licences or registrations, investigating and imposing penalties, restricting activities or withdrawing permissions and bringing or referring criminal cases.
In the United Kingdom it works at national level. Instruments connected to it in this glossary include FCA Handbook guidance.
Check the official sources below for legal scope, applicable dates and exceptions. This entry is an explanatory reference, not legal advice.
Why it matters
It can both set the rules and punish breaches of them, so its priorities shape compliance risk directly.
Who it affects
Organisations in financial services and crypto assets in the United Kingdom.
Where it sits
Ten linked steps connect where you operate to the proof that you complied.
- 01Jurisdiction
- 02Industry
- 03Activity
- 04Authority
- 05Regulation
- 06Requirement
- 07Guidance
- 08Control
- 09Evidence
- 10Enforcement
Connections
The terms most closely tied to FCA. Select one to open it.
What to do about it
- 1Confirm whether FCA has power over you, and through which licence, registration, membership or activity.
- 2Follow its rules, guidance and enforcement publications as they are issued.
- 3Map each obligation it creates to a control with a named owner.
- 4Keep examination-ready evidence for its highest-risk obligations.
From requirement to evidence.
Regulation Layer tracks its publications in the change feed, maps its obligations to your controls, and links its enforcement actions to the obligations they cite.
Request early access →