Regulatory Initiatives Grid

This is the 8^th edition of the Regulatory Initiatives Grid. We postponed the previous publication, due in May 2024, following the announcement of the General Election. Although the Forum published an interim update in October 2024, this edition reflects the significant reprioritisation that has taken place since the new Government came to power.

A key aim of the Grid is to enable the financial services industry and others to understand – and plan for – the initiatives that may have a significant impact on them.

The regulators that contribute to this Grid continue vital activity to support the safety, soundness and integrity of the UK financial services sector, protect consumers, drive innovation and competition, and support the UK’s international competitiveness and growth in the medium to long-term.

Regulators are focused on supporting the Government’s growth mission, and the reduction of unnecessary burden. Some of this will be achieved by reducing the quantity of new regulation, streamlining existing regulation where appropriate, and targeted reductions in regulatory reporting requirements. Doing so should enable a reduction in the cost of compliance.

This Grid shows regulators’ growth plans are forming and taking shape. We will continue to use it to update stakeholders on the progress of the policies set out in our individual growth letters to government and those covered in the Chancellor’s recent Regulation publication. These steps will support growth, competitiveness, investment and innovation, while maintaining financial stability and consumer protection. For example, the potential removal of the £100 limit on contactless payments, the creation of a new platform for shares in private companies to help them access finance, the Digital Securities Sandbox, the PRA’s Matching Adjustment Investment Accelerator and further remuneration reforms for banks.

Regulators are already acting quickly. For example, the FCA removed the requirement for a Consumer Duty Board champion at the end of February 2025 without consulting.

The number of joint initiatives involving two or more regulators has steadily increased since the Grid was established in 2020, reflecting increased regulatory co-ordination. The Grid also enables more effective consideration of the cumulative effect of regulatory interventions.

We have included additional information where changes to our work programme could have a significant impact on firms’ planning. For example, in January 2025, the PRA (in consultation with HM Treasury) announced its decision to delay implementation of Basel 3.1 by 1 year to 1 January 2027 to allow greater clarity to emerge about plans for implementation in the United States. The PRA has set out the timetable for files impacted by the Basel 3.1 delay, particularly the delivery of Strong and Simple (see page 20 of pdf).

In deciding what policy initiatives to advance, members of the forum have also taken into account work that is already in train by government – to ensure that regulators are focused on the areas where they need to take initiatives forward because of gaps that need to be addressed. One example of this is that the PRA and FCA have recently confirmed they do not plan to publish final rules on diversity and inclusion data, in light of feedback received on the proposals and legislative developments. We will continue to consider the need for proposed initiatives in light of the drive to ensure that regulation is proportionate.

This Grid shows the increasing proportion of regulatory activities that are driven by the Government, including 19 initiatives that result from the repeal and replacement of assimilated law under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023. These initiatives are largely designed to make regulation more proportionate, streamlined and tailored to the UK.

It also shows which initiatives we have already completed, even if not yet fully implemented. Examples include initiatives such as simplifying liquidity and disclosure requirements for Small Domestic Deposit Takers, as part of a strong and simple prudential framework for non-systemic banks and building societies, reforms arising from the Solvency ll Review, and the final rules for commercial Pensions Dashboards. This edition lists 90 completed/stopped initiatives, including 19 which have both started and finished since the last Grid was published.

Data remains a key area of focus. The FCA and PRA will develop proposals for the deletion of little-used or duplicative whole templates. The PRA will develop a firm-facing portal to provide the foundations to automate how we collect data for certain authorisations purposes, and the PRA and FCA will work together with industry to develop a coherent approach to regulatory reporting collections that can be maintained and evolve as risks emerge. The FCA has launched MyFCA, a portal to make it easier for firms to see all the information relating to their regulatory reporting responsibilities, making them easier to complete.

While it’s important that regulators in the Forum each retain operational independence and continue to decide their own flow and pace of work, we will continue to work together to retain the strength and integrity of the UK financial sector.

The Financial Services Regulatory Initiatives Forum was launched to further strengthen coordination between its 9 members. The FCA and Bank of England /PRA co-chair the Forum which is made up of representatives from:

• The Bank of England
• Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
• Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
• Financial Reporting Council (FRC)
• His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT)
• Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
• Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA)
• Payment Systems Regulator (PSR)
• The Pensions Regulator (TPR)

The Forum regularly reviews its membership. While there are no current plans to extend the members of the Forum, the Grid may include initiatives from a wider set of UK bodies based on their occasional participation in the Forum.

The Forum’s terms of reference will help users to understand the role of the Forum and the nature of this publication.

The Grid presents expected timeframes for regulatory initiatives led by one or more Forum members at the time of publication. The Grid will only include information that meets set criteria.

To be included in the Grid, initiatives must:

Be public information – The Grid is not an announcement tool. Stakeholders are usually informed of initiatives featured on the Grid through Forum members’ regular channels of communication.

Have an operational impact – Forum members will include initiatives expected to have a significant operational impact during implementation. This means the Grid will feature initiatives believed to take up a substantial amount of firms’ time and resources during implementation.

The Grid does not include:

• initiatives led by international bodies, except where Forum members are playing a key role in calibrating their implementation in the UK
• enforcement actions
• supervisory activities (since timing and operational impact are firm-specific)
• market sensitive information

The Grid is published twice a year. Each edition captures the regulatory landscape at the point of publication. The initiatives and their timings in each edition, may change or discontinue based on operational decisions.

Editions will not be updated after publication to reflect the impacts of these decisions or to add initiatives announced later.

To help industry continue to plan effectively, each authority contributing to the Grid provides channels where industry can keep up to date with changes to planned activity or new announcements:

• Sign up to Regulation Round-up, the FCA’s monthly newsletter to firms on key topics, events and sector news and stay up to date with the FCA’s latest news and new publications, including consultations, guidance and notices and decisions.
   
• Find up-to-date information on all the guidance the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is developing, including what is being worked on and expected publication dates. Updates are made regularly so you can track progress with confidence.
   
• See the Pension Regulator’s (TPR) news, updates, and best practice reports. On the consultations webpage you can read relevant documents, find out how to respond to open consultations, and see our responses to closed consultations and discussion papers.
   
• Stay up to date with the latest publications from the Bank of England and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Access policy publications, quarterly bulletins and working papers from the Bank of England, and find consultation papers, supervisory and policy statements from the Prudential Regulation Authority.
   
• Find the latest information on the Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) active consultations, including briefing material and structured engagement activity.
   
• See the latest information on HM Treasury policy papers and consultations.

The Grid is organised by sections, often determined by sector.

The ‘Multi-sector’ section covers initiatives that span more than one sector. There are sector-specific sections which cover:

• Banking, credit and lending
• Payments and cryptoassets
• Insurance and reinsurance
• Investment management
• Pensions and retirement income
• Retail investments
• Wholesale financial markets 

The 2 largest sections (Multi-sector and Banking, credit and lending) are broken down into additional sub-categories, which group similar initiatives to make them more accessible for users. 

The Grid contains the following information about regulatory initiatives:

• Lead – which institution(s) is taking the initiative forward. Organisations are listed in alphabetical order for jointly led initiatives.
   
• Initiative – a high-level description of the initiative.
   
• Expected key milestones – the specific timing of milestones, for example closing dates for consultation papers, if these are known.
   
• Indicative impact on firms – this is shown as ‘higher’ (H), ‘lower’ (L) or ‘unknown’ (U) on a relative basis amongst initiatives.
   
• Quarter-by-quarter – a breakdown of the next 3 quarters (October 2025 to June 2026), a column covering the following 6 months (July 2026 to December 2026) and a column for beyond that horizon.
   
• Interest to consumers/consumer organisations – indicates where we expect an initiative is likely to be of interest to consumers and consumer organisations.
   
• Change in timing – indicates that there has been a substantive change in timings for this initiative since the previously published edition of the Grid.
   
• New initiative added to the Grid – indicates that this initiative was not included in the previous edition of the Grid.

The Grid also features an annex to highlight where initiatives included in the previous Grid have been removed because they have been completed or stopped. 

• Edition 1: May 2020 (PDF)
• Edition 2: September 2020 (PDF)
• Edition 3: May 2021 (PDF) and Edition 3: May 2021 (XLSX)
• Edition 4: November 2021 (PDF) and Edition 4: November 2021 (XLSX)
• Edition 5: May 2022 (PDF) and Edition 5: May 2022 (XLSX)
• Edition 6: February 2023 (PDF) and Edition 6: February 2023 (XLSX)
• July 2023 update (PDF)
• Edition 7: November 2023 (PDF) and Edition 7: November 2023 (XLSX)
• Interim update - October 2024
• April 2025 update (PDF)

• Meeting minutes - February 2025 (PDF)
• Meeting minutes - November 2023 (PDF)
• Meeting minutes - February 2023 (PDF)
• Meeting minutes - May 2022 (PDF)
• Meeting minutes - October 2021 (PDF)
• Meeting minutes - April 2021 (PDF)
• Meeting minutes - September 2020 (PDF)
• Meeting minutes - April 2020 (PDF)