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FCA 2025-26: Fewer, Faster Investigations; Transparency and Public Naming; Financial Crime Crackdown; Higher Fines; Culture and Non-financial Misconduct; Off-channel Communications: A UK Lawyers' Briefing

Published on: 08 January 2026

Published by a Law360 reporter
Legal News
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Article summary

We outline the FCA’s key messages from 2025, alongside predictions and practical tips to help you stay on the right side of the FCA in 2026.

Fewer, faster investigations

A refreshed stance on enforcement has been anticipated since Therese Chambers and Steve Smart assumed leadership of the FCA’s enforcement division in 2023, and the June 2025 update to the FCA Enforcement Guide made it official. The policy statement released with the revised guide confirmed that the FCA has raised the threshold, effectively raising the bar, for commencing an investigation and bolstered its pre-investigation assessment procedures.

Addressing the City & Financial Global FCA Investigations and Enforcement Summit in October 2025, Therese Chambers, the FCA’s Joint Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight, underscored the point, stating the FCA is running fewer investigations, at a faster pace. This reflects a 2025 objective to shrink the open caseload and bring ongoing investigations to a conclusion more quickly within a shorter time frame.

Signs that this recalibrated enforcement strategy is taking effect are already visible in practice. In a March 2025 letter to the Treasury Select Committee, the FCA confirmed a 35% reduction in the number of open enforcement operations...

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