Consumer Duty requirements review: update

Following the Consumer Duty (the Duty) requirements review Call for Input, we set out progress on the action we have taken so far, and further action we will take following stakeholder input.  

Our action plan at the end of this page includes:  

• A summary of the work we have completed since March 2025.
• The work that we continue to progress.
• New work that has been announced as a result of the Leeds reforms.  
• The new work that we are committing to as part of this Consumer Duty streamlining exercise and review. 

Our priorities for streamlining our regulatory requirements

In March 2025, we set out steps we will take to simplify our requirements of firms in a Feedback Statement (PDF), responding to comments on our July 2024 Call for Input (PDF). As part of our strategy’s (PDF) priority to support growth, we are focused on areas where streamlining could achieve:

• More flexibility: Enabling firms to innovate and take advantage of technology, and to tailor approaches to customers' circumstances, particularly those with characteristics of vulnerability.
• More predictability: Providing more clarity on our priorities and upcoming consultations, helping firms plan.
• Improved efficiency: Reducing the time, cost and complexity involved in meeting our expectations, while ensuring good customer outcomes.

We hosted a Regulatory Summit in July 2025, attended by over 90 representatives from across the financial services sector, government bodies and consumer groups to discuss the proposals in our Feedback Statement, and to determine what else, if anything, we could do. Participants were supportive of the actions and plans we set out and provided additional feedback, which we've set out below.

At the request of the Chancellor, we have also worked with wholesale firms and trade bodies representing them to understand their concerns about the application of the Duty. Much of this feedback echoes issues raised at the Summit. At the request of the Chancellor, we have also worked with wholesale firms and trade bodies representing them to understand their concerns about the application of the Duty. Much of this feedback echoes issues raised at the Summit. The tables below set out our progress towards delivering on our 4-point plan (PDF) to address this feedback and give wholesale firms greater confidence to apply the Duty proportionately.

Our wider work on the Duty

Our work to streamline our requirements is a key component of our approach to implementing the Duty. For more on our wider programme of work on the Duty, see our latest workplan.

Next steps

Stakeholders will have opportunities to feed into our work as it progresses.

We will also continue to look for opportunities to streamline our requirements of firms. We will continue to provide mechanisms for stakeholders to raise concerns about overly complex or overlapping requirements. We continue to provide ways for stakeholders to raise concerns about overly complex or overlapping requirements to inform our future priorities, including through the FCA and Practitioner Panel 2026 survey.

We will run a series of sector-level roundtables over the course of 2026 and continue to provide updates on feedback received and future priorities. We will also provide an update on the cumulative benefits of this work in due course.

Feedback on our requirements of firms

We received feedback on our requirements via our 2025 Regulatory Summit, key themes of which we've responded to below. These included:

Feedback on our regulatory approach

Through the Summit and this review, we have heard feedback about our wider regulatory approach, on topics including our authorisations' timelines, how we consult and implement policy, navigability of our Handbook, and our approach to risk and growth.

A broad package of measures has been announced through the Leeds Reforms, covering our authorisations timelines, the senior manager regime, the redress system, and our support for firms as they scale up and grow. We are currently taking this work forwards together with the other areas of work to support growth as set out in our letter to the Prime Minister in January 2025 (PDF). We also provided an update on our progress (PDF) in December last year.

Our action plan

In FS25/2, we committed to several workstreams which would simplify our requirements of firms. We have already delivered some of these commitments and are actively progressing others throughout 2026, as well as a wider programme of reform and simplification work.