Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority is weighing changes to disclosure rules on mortgages, lending and savings products to give clearer information to consumers, as it prepares to unveil a new five-year plan to deepen trust and promote growth in UK financial services.
The watchdog said on Tuesday it wanted to retire hundreds of pages of outdated guidance and supervisory publications as part of a broader plan to streamline demands on financial firms, which it said would give product providers more flexibility to tailor communications to customers’ needs and preferences.French woman takes pet pigs to work to challenge meat-eater mindset
It also said it would review parts of its credit advertising rules, such as lengthy terms and conditions.
The latest proposals come as the FCA prepares to publish its next five-year strategy focusing on four priorities: helping consumers, fighting crime, supporting growth and being a “smarter” regulator.
The UK government is betting on faster growth in financial services to help kickstart Britain’s lacklustre economy, where growth is expected to roughly halve in 2025 to about 1%.
The FCA and sister regulator the Prudential Regulation Authority have secondary objectives to promote the domestic and international competitiveness of the UK financial industry.
With Chancellor Rachel Reeves pushing to keep fragile fiscal plans intact, the regulators face increasing pressure to loosen red tape on financial firms, without endangering market stability or exposing consumers to excess risk.
“Now the Consumer Duty is in full force we’re making changes quickly where stakeholders want us to, to cut unnecessary costs, support growth, and ultimately help consumers get better outcomes,” Sarah Pritchard, Executive Director of Competition, Consumers and International at the watchdog said.
“These proposals are part of our long-term efforts to future-proof our rules, reduce burdens for financial firms and will help the ambitious government targets to cut the cost of regulation.”
The FCA said the industry had given feedback that now was not the time for widespread changes to its rules. The regulator has pledged to avoid a widespread overhaul and said it would engage with the industry to strike an appropriate balance.
