The legal framework for non-financial misconduct (NFM) is becoming clearer. The practical decisions facing employers remain highly complex. As employment law and financial regulation increasingly overlap, judgement, governance and culture are becoming the real differentiators.
For several years, debate around NFM focused on one question: what exactly is it? That is now largely behind us. As the FCA's new framework comes into force on 1 September 2026 and employment law places increasing emphasis on preventing workplace harassment, the conversation has shifted from defining NFM to deciding how organisations should respond when difficult issues arise in practice.
Employment law is increasingly requiring employers to take more proactive steps to prevent poor workplace behaviour before it occurs. At the same time, the FCA is increasingly viewing workplace behaviour through the lens of governance, culture, and fitness and propriety. The result is that what was once viewed primarily as an HR issue has become a governance issue with employment, regulatory and reputational consequences.
The FCA's guidance provides valuable clarification, but it deliberately avoids creating a rigid framework. Instead, it expects firms to exercise judgement when assessing whether conduct amounts to NFM, whether it is sufficiently connected with work and what regulatory consequences should follow.
That inevitably leaves firms grappling with difficult questions. How...
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