UK Regulatory Radar

July 2024

Our new issue of UK Regulatory Radar brings you the latest industry and regulatory updates impacting financial service providers in the UK.

This edition is once again shorter than usual as whilst regulators are beginning to issue announcements following the UK general election, updates are still yet to return to usual levels and we are entering the traditionally quieter summer period. Revised publication dates for some regulatory announcements are unknown. However, others are beginning to filter through including the Listing Regime overhaul from the FCA.

Click on the images below for our latest insights and see the 'Further updates' section for other sector-specific developments.

Highlights this month

Counterparty credit risk management

Regulators’ concerns around the impact of the growth of private equity on banking

Private asset management

Evolving regulatory expectations

A new order?

What does the UK General Election result mean for FS regulation?

Consumer Duty Board Report

How to build a successful Consumer Duty annual assessment report

Further updates

Financial Stability Report: In the June Financial Policy Summary and Record, the Financial Policy Committee (FPC) found that the overall risk environment remains broadly unchanged from Q1, but that some asset prices have continued to rise, and the risk of a sharp correction persists. Geopolitical risks remain high and there is policy uncertainty associated with elections set to take place globally. This could make the global economic outlook less certain and lead to financial market volatility. However, the UK banking system remains strong enough to support households and businesses, even if the economy does worse than expected. The UK Countercyclical Buffer (CCyB) will be maintained at 2%. The next report will be in October.

Bank of England's quarterly statistical release: The Bank of England's (BoE's) June quarterly statistical release for banking sector regulatory capital showed that:

The CET1 capital ratio for the UK banking sector has decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 15.7%.
The level of CET1 capital increased by 0.6% on the quarter, from £462bn to £465bn.
The level of total risk-weighted assets decreased by 2.2% from £2,898bn to £2,963bn this quarter.

2024 BoE stress test: The BoE has released details of the two hypothetical scenarios for the 2024 desk-based exercise. The scenarios are countercyclical and linked to the FPC's assessment of the underlying level of risks and vulnerabilities in the UK and global economies and financial markets. Both are designed to be severe but plausible. The supply shock scenario sees a severe, negative global aggregate supply shock from an increase in geopolitical tensions and global commodity prices. The demand shock sees a severe negative global aggregate demand shock and global recession, resulting in falling inflation and a rapid drop in the Bank rate to 0.1%, remaining below 0.5% for two years. In both scenarios, there is a domestic and global recession, with UK GDP falling by 5%, unemployment rising to 8.5% and house prices falling by 28%, and world GDP falls by 3%. Aggregate findings will be published by the end of 2024. The BoE will not publish individual bank's results.

BCBS principles for sound management of third-party risk: In response to ongoing digitalisation and increased reliance on, and complexity of, outsourcing arrangements, the BCBS is proposing 12 principlesopens in a new tab for banks and prudential supervisors on the sound management of third-party risk. The proposals cover Third-Party Service Providers (TPSPs), Critical TPSPs and Intragroup TPSPs and provide guidance on effective third-party risk management, with the aim of enhancing banks' ability to withstand operational disruptions and mitigating the impact of severe disruptive events.

Simplifying the UK Listing Regime: The FCA has publishedopens in a new tab major changes to the listing rules after extensive consultation over the last few years. With the aim of boosting growth and innovation on UK stock markets, the simplified regime compresses the 'premium' and 'standard' listing segment into on single category, removes move the need for votes on significant or related party transactions and offers flexibility around enhanced voting rights. Shareholder approval for key events, like reverse takeovers and decisions to take the company's shares off an exchange, is still required. The FCA is clear that the new rules involve allowing greater risk but believes the changes will better reflect the risk appetite the economy needs to achieve growth. The rules will go live on 29 July 2024.

Updates to the Sponsor Regime: Alongside the updates to the Listing Regime above, in Primary Market Bulletin 50opens in a new tab, the FCA provides an update on the work it has been doing in relation to the sponsor regime, consults on the introduction of new technical notes relating to supervisory reviews of sponsor firms and the FCA's expectations of a sponsor in relation to specialist due diligence and consults on an update to its existing technical note on sponsor record keeping.

UK EMIR: The FCA has published final Q&A to support the implementation of the updated UK EMIR reporting requirements that go live on 30 September 2024. However, in response to a query received in the second consultation, it is consulting on one further draft Q&A under topic 10 — position level reporting.

Updates to the UK Stewardship Code: The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) provided an updateopens in a new tab on its review of the UK Stewardship Code. It has identified five key areas it will focus on as it considers changes to better support UK capital markets, reduce reporting burdens and drive better stewardship outcomes. These include reviewing the purpose of stewardship, its reporting principles, greater transparency around proxy advisers, more efficient reporting processes and improving the understanding of the Code. A formal consultation will be published later in 2024. In addition, the FRC announced it would be making five immediate changes to significantly reduce the reporting burden on existing signatories to the Code – these take effect for the next application window from 31 October 2024.

Overseas Funds Regime (OFR): The FCA has finalisedopens in a new tab the rules needed to operationalise the OFR. Compared with its proposals in CP23/26opens in a new tab (PDF 1.2MB), it has made only minor changes. These include removing a requirement to notify the FCA 30 days before certain changes take effect, clarifications on the wider notifications that OFR fund managers will need to make, and additional guidance on disclosures. The FCA’s rules and guidance take effect from 31 July 2024, ahead of landing slots for funds in the Temporary Marketing Permissions Regime from 1 October 2024. More information on the application process and timeline is available on the FCA’s webpageopens in a new tab.

Life Insurance Stress Test (LIST) 2025: The PRA has publishedopens in a new tab its approach to the 2025 LIST. It has listed all insurers in scope of the exercise, focusing on those in the bulk purchase annuity (BPA) market with the largest annuity portfolios. The LIST will have one core scenario outlining a financial market stress, with these results published at individual firm level, and then two exploratory scenarios covering asset type concentration stress and FundedRe recapture stress, with these results published on an aggregate basis. Firms can provide technical input to the PRA's approach until 6 September. The LIST will commence in January 2025 and results will be published in Q4 2025.

Insurance outcomes monitoring: The FCA has publishedopens in a new tab the findings of its insurance multi-firm review of outcomes monitoring. Overall, the FCA found that monitoring MI should be strengthened to ensure an outcomes-based, rather than process-driven approach, and that data is comprehensive enough to ensure effective governance. The review found a wide variation in quality with examples of insurers delivering good outcomes for customers, but also areas for improvement. These included failures to demonstrate actions to address poor outcomes, and failures to monitor outcomes for distinct groups. Although the review was limited to insurers, all firms will be expected to act immediately to assess and address any shortcomings in their outcomes monitoring practices to ensure they are meeting the requirements of the Duty.

Trading apps: The FCA has publishedopens in a new tab findings from a study which indicates the use of digital engagement practices (DEPs) by trading apps can influence user behaviour, increasing trading frequency and risk-taking among consumers. Using a mock trading app platform, the study tested the effect of different DEPs on trading behaviour such as push notifications and prize draws, which are used by trading apps. The study found that DEPs can increase trading frequency and risk taking, and evidence that DEP have a greater effect on those with lower financial literacy. The FCA intends to keep trading apps under review.

Faster payments: APP scams reimbursement requirement: compliance & monitoring: The PSR has confirmed requirements that must be in place for the FSP APP scams reimbursement policy start date of 7 October 2024. Through a policy statementopens in a new tab (PDF 470KB) and legal instruments Specific Direction 19 (SD19opens in a new tab), Specific Direction 20 (SD20opens in a new tab) and Specific Requirement 1 (SR1opens in a new tab), the PSR has confirmed the data and information that PSPs be required to provide to Pay.UK to enable it to fulfil its compliance monitoring role, and for the PSR to monitor compliance with its directions.

FCA quarterly consultation paper 24/11: The FCA has published its latest quarterly consultation paper (2.2MB), proposing wide-ranging changes. Asset managers are invited to share views on the FCA's proposals to amend the concentration rules for UK UCITS and to remove references to the UK Long-Term Investment Fund (LTIF) regulation. Wider firms are invited to input on changes relating to the handbook to align it with HMT's revisions to the UK MiFID Org Regulation, the MiFIR transparency regime, and to the Credit Rating Agencies Regulation. There are also proposals that will impact additional regulated firms. These include introducing criminal background checks on owners and controllers at the authorisations gateway, amendments to the supervision manual to reference updated prudential guidelines, and to remove certain Brexit-related provisions. Firms should review relevant aspects of the FCA's proposals in the consultation paper.

FCA fees and levies: The FCA has confirmedopens in a new tab (PDF 832KB) its final regulatory fee and levy rates for 2024/25, finalising the rules broadly as they were consulted on, with some amendments. Key amendments include the removal of general insurance firms from the scope of the cost recovery for the Advice Guidance Boundary Review, and confirmation that the final rates for the Access to Cash fee block (A.24) will be made at a later date via a separate instrument. The FCA has also adjusted rates in some areas due to fee data changes used to calculate the rates.

Useful information:

The KPMG Regulatory Barometer helps firms identify key areas of pressure across the evolving UK and EU regulatory landscape and measure the impact of the likely change.

The KPMG Financial Services Regulatory Insight Centre monitors and tracks the evolving regulatory landscape. If you would like to discuss any of the topics covered in more detail, please contact a member of the team below: