If your fees have changed in 2025/26 please review the table below which explains the changes to fee rates since last year.
FCA fees
Overall, the FCA’s AFR has increased in 2025/26 by 3.8%. The fee rate movements for each fee-block broadly reflect this percentage increase (adjusted for other factors) and the change in total tariff data reported by firms.
Your actual fees are based on the volume of business (your tariff data) you have reported, so reporting a large change in your tariff data this year will also have an impact on your actual fees.
| Fee-Block | Tariff Base | Annual Funding Require-ment (AFR) | AFR change from last year | Total tariff data change from last year | Rate change from last year | Explanations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A001 Deposit acceptors | Modified eligible liabilities (MEL) | £100m | 4.1% | 3.0 | 1% | Due to an increase in the Open Banking exceptional project costs of £2m, the A001 AFR has increased by 4.1%. As the tariff data has increased by 3% from 2024/25, this has partly offset the AFR increase resulting in a 1% increase in fee rates from 2024/25. |
| A002 Home finance providers and administrators | Number of home finance transactions (NOHFT) | £24.0m | 1.9% | 0.4% | 1.1% | Due to reductions in the Smarter Regulatory Framework and Credit Information Market Study Interim Working Group exceptional project costs, the A002 AFR has only increased by 1.9%. The AFR increase has been partially offset by a slight increase in tariff data resulting in a 1.1% increase in rates. |
| A003 Insurers - General | Gross written premiums (GWP) | £31.7m | 2.9% | 14.5% | -10.6% | The A003 AFR has increased by 2.9% which is slightly above the ORA increase of 2.5%. This is due to an increase in the Advice Guidance Boundary Review exceptional projects costs partially offset by a reduction in the Smarter Regulatory Framework exceptional project costs. As the GWP data has increased by 14.5%, this has resulted in fee rates being reduced from 2024/25 by 10.6%. |
| A003 Insurers – General | Best estimate liabilities (BEL) | 2.9 | 4.9% | -2.2% | The A003 AFR has increased by 2.9% which is slightly above the ORA increase of 2.5%. This is due to an increase in the Advice Guidance Boundary Review exceptional projects costs partially offset by a reduction in the Smarter Regulatory Framework exceptional project costs. As the BEL data has increased by 4.9%, this has resulted in fee rates being reduced from 2024/25 by 2.2%. | |
| A004 Insurers - Life | Gross written premiums (GWP) | £35.8m | 3.4% | 12.7% | -8.2% | The A004 AFR has increased by 3.4% which is above the ORA increase of 2.5%. This is due to an increase in the Advice Guidance Boundary Review exceptional projects costs and the Pension Dashboard exceptional project costs which are partially offset by a reduction in the Smarter Regulatory Framework exceptional project costs. Due to an increase in GWP data of 12.7%, the fee rate has been reduced by 8.2% from 2024/25. |
| A004 Insurers – Life | Best estimate liabilities (BEL) | £23.9m | 3.4% | 7.3% | -3.6% | The A004 AFR has increased by 3.4% which is above the ORA increase of 2.5%. This is due to an increase in the Advice Guidance Boundary Review exceptional projects costs and the Pension Dashboard exceptional project costs which are partially offset by a reduction in the Smarter Regulatory Framework exceptional project costs. Due to an increase in GWP data of 7.3%, the fee rate has been reduced by 3.6% from 2024/25. |
| A005 Managing agents at Lloyds | Active Capacity (AC) | £0.3m | 6.9% | 2.6% | 4.3% | The AFR has only increased by 6.9% as it contributes to less exceptional project costs than other fee-blocks. This increase in AFR is offset in part due to an increase of 2.6% in active capacity, resulting in the fee rates only increasing by 4.3%. |
| A007 Portfolio managers | Funds under management (FUM) | £59.1m | 10.1% | 1.9% | 3.7% | The AFR has increased by 10.1% due to it contributing to the Advice Guidance Boundary Review cost in 2024/25. However, the fee rate has only increased by 3.7% due in part to an increase of 1.9% in funds under management and partly due to an over recovery in this fee-block in 2023/24. |
| A009 Managers and depositaries of investment funds, and operators of collective investment schemes or pension schemes | Gross income (GI) | £15.7m | 9.9% | -1.6% | 12.5% | Although this fee-block's AFR has increased roughly in line with overall ORA increase, due to a fall of 1.6% in tariff data the rate has increased by 12.5%. |
| A010 Firms dealing as principal | Number of traders (NOT) | £68.0m | 9.2% | -7.2% | 15.1% | Although this fee-block's AFR has increased roughly in line with overall ORA increase, due to a fall of 7.2% in tariff data the rate has increased by 15.1%. |
| A013 Advisers, arrangers, dealers and brokers | Annual income (AI-A13) | £103.0m | 8.9% | -1.1% | 9.8% | Although this fee-block's AFR has increased roughly in line with overall ORA increase, due to a reduction of 1.1% in tariff data the rate has increased by 9.8%. |
| A014 Corporate finance advisers | Annual income (AI-A14) | £18.7m | 9.3% | -24.7% | 45.3% | Although this fee-block's AFR has increased roughly in line with overall ORA increase, the rate has increased by 45.3% due to a significant 24.7% reduction in tariff data. |
| A018 Home finance providers, advisers and arrangers | Annual income (AI-A18) | £23.0m | 9.3% | -10.3% | 20.3% | Although this fee-block's AFR has increased roughly in line with overall ORA increase, due to a reduction of 10.3% in tariff data the rate has increased by 20.3%. |
| A019 General insurance distribution | Annual income (AI-A19) | £38.0m | 9.3% | 8.4% | 0.5% | The AFR has increased roughly in line with overall ORA increase. However, this increase is partly offset by an 8.4% rise in tariff data resulting in only a 0.5% increase in the fee rates. |
| A021 Firms holding client money or assets, or both | Highest client assets (HCA) | £4.9m | 9.6% | -9.7% | 22.2% | The AFR has increased roughly in line with overall ORA increase. However, due to a reduction of 9.7% in tariff data the HCA rates have increased by 22.2%. |
| A021 Firms holding client money or assets, or both | Highest client money (HCM) | £14.6m | 9.6% | -16.6% | 29.8% | The AFR has increased roughly in line with overall ORA increase. However, due to a fall of 16.6% in tariff data the HCM rates have increased by 29.8%. |
| A022 Principal firms – appointed representatives | Number of appointed representatives (NOAR/NOIAR) | £7.1m | 4.8% | -1.1% | 8.6% | Flat fees for appointed representatives and introducer appointed representatives increased in line with ORA increase of 8.6%. |
| A023 Funeral plan intermediaries and funeral plan providers | Annual income (AI-FP) | £1.8m | 9.2% | -31.7% | 89.2% | Although the AFR has increased by 9.2%, the fee rate has increased by 89.2% due to a large under collection in this fee-block in 2023/24 following significant tariff data reductions by numerous firms after the fee rates were set for 2023/24 and a 31.7% overall reduction in tariff data. |
| A024 Access to Cash | Modified eligible liabilities (MEL) | £2.0m | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | This is the first year for raising fees in the Access to Cash fee-block. |
| CMC Claims management companies | Annual turnover (TOCMC) | £2.3m | 352.7% | 9.3% | 1329.7% | In 2023/24 claims management companies benefited from a £1.6m rebate resulting in the fee rates reducing by 89.3% that year. In 2024/25 these firms no longer benefit from the rebate and as such the AFR has increased from £0.5m in 2023/24 to £2.3m in 2024/25. Due to this increase in AFR the rates have increased significantly in 2024/25. |
| CC01 Credit-related regulated activities with limited permissions | Consumer credit annual income (CCI) | £11.2m | 18.0% | -6.0% | 8.4% | The AFR has increased by 18%. This is due to the minimum fee increases that were deferred in 2023/24 now happening in 2024/25 (please refer to Chapter 3 of CP24/6[1]), together with additional exceptional project costs in relation to Credit Information Market Study (CIMS) Interim Working Group (IWG). Despite the 18% increase in AFR, the rates have only increased by 8.4% in line with the CC02 fee rate increase. |
| CC02 Credit-related regulated activities | Consumer credit annual income (CCI) | £57.9m | 18.0% | 8.9% | 8.4% | The AFR has increased by 18%. This is due to the minimum fee increases that were deferred in 2023/24 now happening in 2024/25 (please refer to Chapter 3 of CP24/6[1]), together with additional exceptional project costs in relation to Credit Information Market Study (CIMS) Interim Working Group (IWG). This increase in AFR is partly offset by a 8.9% increase in tariff data. |
AFR: Annual funding requirement
ORA: Ongoing regulatory activities
Tariff data: The total amount of tariff data reported for each fee-block. Not all tariff data contributes to the collection of the AFR as most fee-blocks have a minimum threshold below which firms do not pay fees in that fee-block. For example, in fee-block A013 the threshold is £100,000 of annual income. If a firm has less than this amount of annual income it will not pay a fee in the A013 fee-block. However, if its tariff data is above £100,000, then its fees are calculated based only on the income above £100,000.
For more information of the above changes, please see 2024/25 Fees Policy Statement[2].
FSCS levy movements
Although the FSCS overall AFR has decreased slightly for 2024/25 at £265.0m, down 1.7% from £269.7m in 2023/24, some FSCS classes will see increases in the funding requirements whilst other will see decreases.
In 2023/24, FSCS used surplus funds carried over from 2022/23 to reduce or rebate some classes. The classes that were not charged any levies in 2023/24 were CLIP (Investment provision claims) and CLII-3 (Investment provision) whilst CLHFI-1 (Home finance intermediation), CLHFI-2 (Home finance provision) and CLDM (Consumer credit provision/debt management) all received rebates.
See the FSCS May ’23 Outlook[3] for further details of the levies for 2023/24 for these classes.
For 2024/25, FSCS have resumed collecting levies of £13.6m in CLII-3 and £55.0m in CLIP whilst the levy requirements for CLHFI-1, CLHFI-2 and CLDM are zero.
The FSCS levy requirement for SA01 (Deposit acceptors) has increased from 2023/24 by £9m due to surplus funds having reduced the levy in 2023/24, the levy requirement for CLII-1 (Life distribution and investment intermediation) has reduced by £35.6m due to an expected reduction in the average compensation claims and fewer firms failing, and the funding requirement for CLII-2 (Life insurance provision) has reduced by £5.2m due to an expected reduction in compensation costs.
For full details of the FSCS levies for these two classes please refer to the FSCS May ’24 Outlook[4].
FCA Consumer Credit Fee Increases
The annual funding requirements (AFRs) for 2024/25 for consumer credit firms in CC.1 (Consumer credit-related regulated activities with limited permissions) and CC.2 (Consumer credit-related regulated activities with full permissions) have increased by 18% from 2023/24.
These increases are due to 2 factors - the consumer credit fee blocks are contributing to the exceptional project costs in relation to Credit Information Market Study (CIMS) Interim Working Group (IWG) and the resumption of phased uplifts to consumer credit minimum fees.
The FCA first consulted on proposed increases to minimum fees in A000 and the consumer credit fee-blocks in paragraph 2.36 of CP21/8 FCA Regulated fees and levies: rate proposals 2021/22[5] published in April 2021. The reason for the phased uplift was to align the minimum fees paid with the ongoing costs of regulation and those paid by authorised firms in the ‘A’ fee-blocks.
However, due to Covid-19 we deferred these proposed increases in minimum fees and in April 2023 (CP23/7 FCA regulated fees and levies: rate proposals for 2023/24[6]) we again agreed to defer the increases for 2023/24 but did state that “we expect to return to our practice of increasing minimum and flat rate fees in line with ORA and resume the staged increases for the A and consumer credit fee-blocks” (Paragraph 3.3).
In CP24/6 FCA regulated fees and levies: rate proposals for 2024/25[2] published in April 2024 we proposed to resume the process of aligning the minimum fees and set out our uplifts for 2024/25, 2025/26 and 2026/27 with a view to increasing the limited consumer credit (CC.1) minimum fee to £1,100 and the full consumer credit (CC.2) minimum fee to £2,200 by 2026/27 (Table 3.1 – shown below).
Table 3.1 Revised structure of minimum fees
| 2023/24 | 2024/25 | 2025/26 | 2026/27 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fee-block A.0 | ||||
| £1,500 | £1,750 | £2,000 | £2,200 | |
| Fee-block CC.1 (limited consumer credit permission) | ||||
| Consumer Credit Related Income | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | 2025/26 | 2026/27 |
| Up to £10,000 | £350 | £600 | £800 |
£1,100 |
| £10,000 -£100,000 | £700 | £900 | £1,100 | |
| Over £100,000 | £1,000 | £1,100 | £1,100 | |
| Fee-block CC.2 (full consumer credit authorisation) | ||||
| Up to £50,000 | £1,000 | £1,250 | £1,500 |
£2,200 |
| £50,000 - £100,000 | £1,250 | £1,500 | £1,750 | |
| Over £100,000 | £1,500 | £1,750 | £2,000 | |
The FCA confirmed these proposed increases to minimum fees in our policy statement PS24/5 FCA regulated fees and levies 2024/25: feedback on CP24/6 and ‘made rules’[6] published in July 2024.
The increase in the AFRs of 18% is therefore partly offset by the increased minimum fees recovering more revenue and an 8.9% increase in consumer credit income resulting in the variable fee rates increasing by 8.4%. This means that firms with consumer credit income of over £250,000 will see not only the increase in minimum fees but also an increase in the variable fee rates resulting in a potentially significant increase in the overall FCA consumer credit fees they pay in 2024/25.
