[author: Bethan Saunders]

The FCA, in its September Regulation Round-up, outlined recent changes to its supervisory model. The new strategy aims to take a more holistic approach to the classification of firms, focusing increasingly on how markets work as a whole, with greater emphasis on sector and market-wide analysis. Firms will now be categorized as either ‘fixed portfolio’ or ‘flexible portfolio’ and will be approached differently, with flexible portfolio firms being more proactively supervised.

Coinciding with this regulatory change, the FCA has published a new Financial Services Register and re-designed FCA handbook. Both new products aim to be more user-friendly and easier to navigate.