Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

FCA non-financial misconduct: rules, guidance and enforcement under SM&CR and COCON (effective 1 September 2026) — implications for fitness and propriety, culture, systems and controls in UK financial services

Published by a LexisNexis Financial Services expert

Practice notes

The FCA has, in recent years, acknowledged that weak culture — notably any acceptance of non-financial misconduct — frequently underpins serious conduct breaches across financial services. Consequently, the regulator has sharpened its oversight of non-financial misconduct when supervising firms and individuals. September 2023 saw consultation CP23/20, outlining measures to advance diversity and inclusion and proposing clarifications on how its rules apply to non-financial misconduct. In July 2025, the FCA issued the resulting policy statement alongside CP25/18, detailing its stance on non-financial misconduct. As part of that package, the Code of Conduct (COCON) sourcebook was revised to introduce new non-financial misconduct rules for the sector. The scope of COCON was broadened to bring banks and non-banks into alignment on non-financial misconduct, confirming that for non-banks the rules capture serious bullying, harassment, violence and comparable behaviour directed at a colleague — defined to include fellow employees, staff of group companies and contractors. The rules take effect on 1 September 2026...

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Eleanor Matthews

Clifford Chance

Eleanor Matthews is a Senior Associate in the Regulatory Investigations and Financial Crime team at Clifford Chance LLP in London, where she specialises in investigations, risk management, and compliance advice. She is experienced in assisting corporates, banks, and financial services firms in relation to a broad range of issues including risk and regulatory compliance, financial crime, systems and controls failings, reputational and cultural issues, non-financial misconduct, cyber security, and issues raised by whistleblowers. Eleanor has also advised clients in relation to a variety of regulatory enforcement actions involving UK and international regulators, including the Financial Conduct Authority, the Prudential Regulation Authority, the Bank of England, the Payment Systems Regulator and the European Securities and Markets Authority. ...

Amy Bird

Clifford Chance

Amy is a Partner in the London office of the global employment team of Clifford Chance. She has almost two decades' experience of providing employment advice across sectors and geographies. She divides her time equally among transactional, advisory, and contentious work. She has particular experience in financial services employment regulatory matters/ SMCR (including culture and conduct investigations). Prior to Clifford Chance she worked in-house as a sole-employment counsel at a European bank and at CMS (including secondments to FTSE 100 companies). She is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association....

Nuri Mirwani

Clifford Chance

Nuri is an Associate in the full-service global Employment team at Clifford Chance. She has experience working on employment litigation (including unfair dismissal, discrimination and whistleblowing claims) as well as cross-border employment advisory matters, investigations and the employment aspects of M&A and Private Equity transactions. She is a member of both the Employment Lawyers Association and the European Employment Lawyers Association....

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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