Welcome to the Regulation Round Up, a regular bulletin highlighting the latest developments in UK and EU financial services regulation.

Key developments in May 2025:

30 May

Trade Settlement: The Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) published a press release on the faster settlement of trades in funds.

29 May

FCA Regulation Round‑up: The FCA has published its regulation round-up for May 2025. Among other things, it covers a future data request for the advisers and intermediaries’ sector, and an upcoming webinar on the FCA’s recent consultation paper on simplifying its insurance rules.

28 May

Cryptoassets: The FCA has published a consultation paper (CP25/14) on proposed prudential rules and guidance for firms carrying on the regulated activities of issuing qualifying stablecoins and safeguarding qualifying cryptoassets.

27 May

Liquidity Risk Management: The International Organization of Securities Commissions (“IOSCO”) has published its final report on its updated liquidity risk management recommendations for collective investment schemes alongside final guidance for the effective implementation of its revised recommendations.

23 May

FCA Handbook: The FCA has published Handbook Notice 130, which sets out changes to the FCA Handbook made by the FCA board on 1 May and 22 May. The changes relate to payment optionality for fund managers, consumer credit regulatory reporting and handbook administration.

19 May

Consumer Credit: HM Treasury published a consultation paper on the first phase of its proposed widescale reforms to the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

16 May

Bank Resolution: The Bank Resolution (Recapitalisation) Act 2025 was published. The Act will amend the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and the Banking Act 2009 to introduce a new mechanism allowing the Bank of England to use funds provided by the banking sector to cover certain costs associated with resolution under the special resolution regime.

15 May

UK Sanctions: The UK Government published its cross‑government review of sanctions implementation and enforcement.

Artificial Intelligence: The European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs published a draft report on the impact of artificial intelligence (“AI”) on the financial sector (PE773.328v01‑00). The report provides policy recommendations to enable the use of AI in financial services and outlines concerns of regulatory overlaps / legal uncertainties, indicating potential early tensions with the proposed AI Act. The report also calls on the European Commission to ensure clarity and guidance on how existing financial services regulations apply to the use of AI in financial services.

PISCES: The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System Sandbox) Regulations 2025 were published and laid before parliament. The regulations establish the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (“PISCES”) Sandbox, including providing the framework for potential PISCES operators to apply to operate intermittent trading events for participating private companies and investors.

14 May

Insurance: The FCA published a consultation paper (CP25/12) on proposals to simplify its insurance rules for insurance firms and funeral plan providers.

12 May

Investment Research: The FCA has published a policy statement (PS25/4) on investment research payment optionality for fund managers.

8 May

Solvency II: The Prudential Regulation Authority (“PRA”) has updated its webpage on Solvency II to note that it will delay the implementation of the updated mapping of external credit rating agency ratings to Credit Quality Steps (“CQSs”) for use in the UK Solvency II regime.

Small Asset Managers: The FCA has published a webpage setting out the findings from its review of business models for smaller asset managers and alternatives.

7 May

MAR and MiFID II: The European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) has published a final report containing technical advice to the European Commission on the implications of the Listing Act on the Market Abuse Regulation (596/2014) (“MAR”) and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (2014/65/EU) (“MIFID II”).

6 May

ESG: The European Commission has published a call for evidence about revising Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 on sustainability‑related disclosures in the financial services sector (“SFDR”). Please refer to our dedicated article on this topic here.

2 May

ESG: ESMA has published a consultation paper on regulatory technical standards under Regulation (EU) 2024/3005 on the transparency and integrity of ESG rating activities.

Cryptoassets: The FCA has published a discussion paper (DP25/1) seeking views on its future approach to regulating cryptoasset trading platforms, intermediaries, cryptoasset lending and borrowing, staking, decentralised finance, and the use of credit to buy cryptoassets.

FCA Handbook: The FCA published Handbook Notice 129, which sets out changes to the FCA Handbook made by the FCA board on 27 March 2025.