rules and regulations
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As it embarks on a fresh strategy, the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is pledging to curb regulatory burdens and foster financial industry innovation.

The regulator unveiled its agenda for the year ahead, which highlighted promises that it will make it easier for industry firms to test innovative products and for new firms to seek regulatory approval.

Among other things, the FCA detailed plans to facilitate firms’ use of its regulatory sandbox to enable them to test innovative products and get these innovations to market more quickly.

It also extended its pre-registration support services for upstart firms seeking regulatory approval to new categories, including crypto firms, wholesale and payments firms. And, as part of its plan to make it easier for new firms to enter the market, the FCA also pledged to give more firms a signal that their registrations are likely to be approved.

“This will allow firms to seek investment with confidence that they can secure regulated status,” it said.

It’s also planning to reduce compliance burdens by decreasing its routine data demands from the industry.

On market oversight, the FCA pledged to reform how it regulates by narrowing its priorities and focusing on issues where the potential harm is largest and requiring less intensive supervision of firms that are “demonstrably seeking to do the right thing.”

“Where we identify higher risk cases, we will take faster action to reduce or remediate the harm,” it said.

Additionally, the FCA said that it will work with industry firms to support the use of AI solutions to drive growth and competition in the financial markets. It said that it intends to step up the fight against financial crime by building a new “data-led detection capability” to help speed up the identification of crime.

“We’re committed to being a smarter regulator — one that supports growth, helps consumers and fights crime,” said Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the FCA, in a release.

“Today, we’re setting out how we’ll go further to help firms that want to join our markets with greater support for the application process and to test innovative products,” he said.

Alongside its agenda, the FCA also issued a consultation on its fees for the year, which are projected to rise 2.5% as its planned costs increase to £783.5 million.