Secondary international competitiveness and growth objective statement [pdf]

The new Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, which was enacted on June 29, 2023, introduced significant changes to the regulatory framework for financial services in the UK. One of these changes is that the Act assigns a secondary objective to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), which is to promote the international competitiveness of the UK financial market and to support its medium to long-term growth. In an effort to implement this new objective, the FCA and PRA have begun reviewing key documents and internal processes. Both will report regularly on how they comply with the new objective in their annual reports and on their Outcomes and Metrics Webpage. Additionally, they will publish detailed reports on how they integrate and advance the new objective during the first two years after the Act’s commencement.
In order to bring about transparency over the FCA’s approach towards implementing the new objective, the regulator has now published this Secondary international competitiveness and growth objective statement. In this statement, the FCA outlines
– the key requirements under the objective (international competitiveness, economic growth, adaptation to international standards);
– the key contributors it has identified to meeting these objectives which are briefly illustrated in the graphic at the end of the list (the FCA calls these contributors „drivers“);
– metrics used and reports generated by the FCA to measure and disclose its progress towards achieving this objective; and
– its approach towards embedding the new objective into its regulatory framework.
To conclude, the FCA also presents its way forward in this matter.
Graphic 1 – Key Contributors To Meeting The Government’s Secondary Objective