Regulation Editor
Catherine Harlow is FinBlockDaily's senior regulation correspondent, specialising in FCA policy, payment institution oversight, and prudential rules for fintech firms.
The FCA has issued 19 enforcement notices to principal firms in the fintech sector for inadequate oversight of their appointed representatives, as tighter rules introduced in 2024 begin to bite.
The FCA has opened a dedicated financial inclusion regulatory sandbox, inviting fintechs to test products designed for underbanked and financially excluded populations. The initiative has attracted 42 applicants including credit unions, community lenders, and savings app developers.
The FCA has finalised new safeguarding requirements for e-money and payments institutions, mandating that customer funds be held in statutory trusts and introducing daily reconciliation obligations.
The Financial Conduct Authority has released its long-awaited regulatory framework for AI in financial services, establishing mandatory standards for model governance, explainability, and bias testing. The rules will apply to all FCA-regulated firms from April 2026.
New FCA safeguarding rules effective 7 May 2026 require daily reconciliation, monthly returns, and annual audits for payment firms — after finding collapsed firms had average shortfalls of 65% of customer funds.
UK banks and fintechs are projected to spend a record £2.1 billion on KYC and AML technology in 2025, driven by regulatory pressure and the rising complexity of financial crime.
UK fintech firms are waiting an average of 14 months for FCA authorisation, up from nine months in 2023, prompting calls for urgent reform of the regulator's licensing processes.
Coinbase has become one of the first major international exchanges to receive full FCA authorisation under the new crypto framework, announcing plans to triple its UK workforce.
New regulatory mandates from the Payment Systems Regulator are compelling fintechs and banks to implement real-time fraud screening or face significant penalties.
The Financial Conduct Authority has published its long-awaited regulatory framework for cryptoassets, establishing clear rules for exchanges, custodians, and token issuers operating in the UK.
The Financial Conduct Authority has launched a permanent digital assets track within its regulatory sandbox, allowing crypto and tokenisation firms to test products under supervised conditions without time limits.