About the FCA

Our role

We regulate financial services firms in the UK, setting standards for firms to meet and holding them to account if they don't.

Our work helps underpin the UK’s reputation as a leading global financial centre – one where consumers are well served, and firms can operate and innovate with clarity and certainty.

• We regulate the conduct of around 42,000 businesses.
• We prudentially supervise around 41,000 firms.
• Around 17,000 firms are subject to the prudential standards in our Handbook.

We were established on 1 April 2013, taking over conduct and relevant prudential regulation from the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

We work across the UK with a head office in London, offices in Leeds and Edinburgh, and colleagues in Belfast and Cardiff.

Why we do it

We all rely on financial services: from bank accounts to pensions, and insurance to loans. Businesses across the country rely on them too, for the lending and investment needed to scale up and grow.  

That's why the sector is the engine of the UK - driving growth, employing over a million people, and contributing billions to the economy every year.  

These services must be honest and competitive so that consumers are well served, and businesses can flourish.  

Based on our policy and enforcement work, we estimate that we add at least £14 of benefits to society for every £1 we spend on our running costs.

How we operate

Our strategic objective is to make sure relevant markets function well. We’ve outlined how we'll achieve this in our 5-year strategy.  

Our operational objectives are to: 

• Protect consumers.
• Protect the integrity of the UK financial system.
• Promote effective competition in the interests of consumers.

Since 2023, we've had a secondary objective to facilitate the international competitiveness and growth of the UK economy in the medium to long term (subject to alignment with international standards).

We're an independent public body funded entirely by the fees we charge regulated firms. Our role and objectives are primarily defined by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA) and we’re accountable to the Treasury, which is responsible for the UK’s financial system, and to Parliament.

To advance our objectives, we work with the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), the prudential regulator of around 1,500 banks, building societies, credit unions, insurers and major investment firms. 

We also work alongside other regulators, UK organisations and government departments, and regularly engage with a wide range of international counterparts and stakeholders.

We have a large and growing remit and our perimeter report sets out what we do and don’t regulate.

We consider the principles of good regulation when carrying out our work, and we reduce and prevent financial crime, working with partners to protect consumers and market integrity.

How we regulate

We work towards our objectives in a variety of ways.  

• We make new rules and issue guidance and standards.
• We work to detect market-wide harm and put in place remedies through market studies.
• We authorise or register financial firms and individuals. 

We take a proportionate approach to regulation. We prioritise the areas and firms that pose a higher risk to our objectives, considering the size, complexity and potential impact on different types of consumers.

We use data to identify and act on problems quickly. This ensures our intelligence is better joined up, and we can move faster to identify and act against firms and individuals who are more likely to cause harm.

Authorisation and registration

Firms and individuals must be authorised or registered by us to deliver regulated activities.

Before we authorise a firm, it must demonstrate that it meets a range of requirements. We then supervise the firm to make sure it continues to meet our standards and rules once it's authorised.

Our approach to supervision explains the approach we take in supervising different types of regulated activities.

If firms and individuals fail to meet our standards, we take action. We have a range of enforcement powers we can use, including bringing criminal prosecutions to tackle financial crime.

How we measure our performance 

Every year, we outline the actions we’ll take to achieve our objectives in our annual work programme and we describe the progress we’ve made in our Annual Report.

We also publish a list of multi-year outcomes and metrics for 2022 to 2025 and 2025 to 2030 that we use to measure progress and against which we hold ourselves accountable.

We measure our performance using operating service metrics (formerly known as service standards). We publish these as part of our commitment to being a transparent organisation.

We also publish quarterly authorisation operating service metrics to be transparent about our performance.