On 12 December, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) finally issued its official response to the public consultation on non-financial misconduct (NFM). This was issued through a Policy Statement PS25/23, finalising new binding regulatory rules and accompanying official guidance on NFM.
The Policy Statement
79 respondents contributed to the consultation, including Squire Patton Boggs. At long last, we have the final rules and guidance, which will be binding on all FCA-regulated firms from 1 September 2026. Or so we thought…
The FCA maintains that it is not possible “to provide enoughexamples or case studies” to address the “wide range of scenarios” that firms may encounter, though in all honesty it does not seem to have tried that hard. The bottom line is, while this official guidance is helpful to a degree in determining how firms should assess and handle NFM, they will still be left largely to their own devices to analyse and report instances of NFM against a backdrop of ever increasing scrutiny and pressure from the FCA to stamp out poor cultural habits and behaviour in the sector.
As before, the situation remains that each case needs to be considered on a case-by-case basis. Instead of case studies and illustrative examples, the FCA has provided flowcharts and decision trees on the stated grounds that each case is unique, giving case studies could mislead firms and firms need to exercise their own judgment. Absolutely all of which could have been accommodated a great...
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