Our use of cookies

First published: 24/05/2018 Last updated: 15/12/2023 See all updates

Find out about the individual cookies we use on the FCA website, and why we use them.

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This cookie notice applies to the FCA website, fca.org.uk only.

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your electronic device (such as a laptop, mobile or tablet). Cookies are widely used to make websites work, or to work more efficiently, or to provide information to the owners of the site.  

Our website uses cookies to distinguish one user of our website from another. This helps us to provide a better experience when you browse our website, and allows us to improve our site and measure the performance of our advertisement campaigns.

When someone visits our website, we use first-party and third-party cookies. First-party cookies are set directly by our website and third-party cookies are set by a domain other than the one the user is visiting. For example, we use Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information, such as details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to identify the number of visitors to various parts of the site. This information is processed in a way which does not identify any individual. 

We use the following cookies: 

  • Necessary cookies. These cookies enable core functionality on our website such as security, network management, and accessibility.  
  • Non-essential cookies. These are optional cookies. We only use these cookies to provide us with anonymous data. We rely upon your consent to allow us to do this. Analytical/performance cookies allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.

You can find more information about the individual cookies we use, and why we use them, in the table below:

Necessary cookies

Cookie Category Purpose Description Expires
fca-cookie-agreed Drupal - content management cookies

Ensures the consent banner is not displayed again for a set period after a user has clicked on it.

 We use Drupal cookies to display and remember content based on selections you have already made. 90 days.
has_js Drupal - content management cookies

Typical content: Boolean.

 We use Drupal cookies to display and remember content based on selections you have already made When user closes the page.
JSESSIONID New Relic cookies

Used to store a session identifier so that New Relic can monitor session counts for an application.

 You can find out more about New Relic Browsers security measures on the New Relic Browser website. Deleted when the browser closes.
fca_popup_global Drupal – content management cookies Determines if user has acknowledged a FCA pop-up banner. Typical content: Boolean. We use Drupal cookies to display and remember content based on selections you have already made. 30 days.
fca_popup Drupal – content management cookies Determines if a user has acknowledge a banner on a specific page (not global). Typical content: Boolean. We use Drupal cookies to display and remember content based on selections you have already made. 30 days.
ad_session_id TwentyThree – video platform cookies Used for traffic balancing so performance is stable. You can find out more on the TwentyThree cookie policy on their website. 90 days.
_GRECAPTCHA Google Used for Google reCAPTCHA, to protect against spam submissions on webforms. For further details on reCAPTCHA, visit Google. 180 days.

Non-essential cookies

Cookie Category Purpose Description Expires
_ga Google Analytics This cookie enables us to distinguish users and estimate our audience size and usage pattern. For further details on Google Analytics cookies, including those not used by fca.org.uk, visit Google. 2 years.
_ga_325571541 Google Analytics GA4 This cookie enables us to distinguish users and estimate our audience size and usage pattern. For further details on Google Analytics cookies, including those not used by fca.org.uk, visit Google. 2 years.
nmstat Siteimprove analytics This cookie enables us to distinguish users and is used to collect statistics about site usage, such as when the visitor last visited the site. For further details on Siteimprove cookies, visit Siteimprove privacy. 1000 days.
siteimproveses Siteimprove analytics This cookie enables us to identify order of pages a visitor looks at during a visit.  For further details on Siteimprove cookies, visit Siteimprove privacy. Maximum time allowed by browser.
fca-cookie-agreed-categories Drupal - content management cookies Determines if user has accepted analytics and campaign advertising cookies. Typical content: Boolean. We use Drupal cookies to display and remember content based on selections you have already made. 3 months
Bing Universal event Tag Bing search We will capture cookie data using this tag. This will enable us to re-target users via search.  For further details on Bing Universal Event cookies, visit Bing ads. https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-gb/privacystatement. 180 days
AdWords Re-marketing Tag Google AdWords We will capture cookie data using this tag. This will enable us to re-target users via search. For further details on Google AdWords cookies, visit AdWords Help. Up to 180 days.
_fbp Facebook This cookie allows us to measure the performance of our Facebook advertising and serve targeted adverts on the Facebook platform. For further details on Facebook cookies, including those not used by fca.org.uk, visit cookies set by Facebook. 90 days
_glc_dc Doubleclick This cookie is used as a means of tracking your website activity to help us optimise our advertising. For further details on Doubleclick cookies, including those not used by fca.org.uk, visit cookies set by Doubleclick. 1 year.
guest_id Twitter This cookie allows us to measure the performance of our Twitter advertising and serve targeted adverts on the Twitter platform. For further details on Twitter cookies, including those not used by fca.org.uk, visit cookies set by Twitter. 2 years.
_scid Snapchat This cookie is used as a means of tracking your website activity to help us optimise our advertising. For further details on Snapchat cookies, including those not used by fca.org.uk, visit cookies set by Snapchat. 13 months
_gcl_au GoogleAdsense This cookie is used as a means of tracking your website activity to help us optimise our advertising. For further details on Google Adsense cookies, including those not used by fca.org.uk, visit Google Adsense Help. 3 months.
_ttp TikTok This cookie is used as a means of tracking your website activity to help us optimise our advertising. For further details on TikTok cookies, including those not used by fca.org.uk, visit TikTok. 13 months.
_tt_enable_cookie TikTok This cookie is used as a means of tracking your website activity to help us optimise our advertising. For further details on TikTok cookies, including those not used by fca.org.uk, visit TikTok. 13 months.
TDID Trade Desk This cookie is used as a means of tracking your website activity to help us optimise our advertising. For further details on Trade Desk cookies, including those not used by fca.org.uk, visit Trade Desk. 1 year.

To understand how the FCA collects and processes personal data please refer to the FCA privacy notice.

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Page updates

: Information added Google reCAPTCHA details added
: Editorial amendment page updated as part of website refresh
: Information added GA4 cookie information added
: Information added GA4 cookie information added
: Information added Added GA4 cookie information
: Link changed Fixed broken Siteimprove link
: Information added New advertising cookies
: Information added Ability to change cookie consent on the page
: Document update Update following review

19/08/2019: Link changed Fixed broken link to https://www.allaboutcookies.org/


Privacy notice

Our use of cookies
Personal data and recruitment
Personal data used when you contact us
Personal data and handling complaints about us
Personal data and authorisation
Personal data and enforcement
Personal data and market oversight
Personal data and mutuals registration
Personal data and supervision
Personal data and surveys, consultations and market research
Personal data and FCA news, events and groups
Personal data and Financial Lives survey