The GRC Navigator

On 27 May 2026 the FCA published a review of section 21 financial promotion approvers, the FCA-authorised firms permitted to approve promotions for businesses that are not themselves authorised. Assessing ten such firms, the review found the strongest applied the Consumer Duty from the start of their approval process, but others fell well short.

• The failures: Some firms approved adverts with unsubstantiated claims, allowed retail investors to see promotions intended for professional clients, and relied on third-party templates instead of doing proper checks themselves. The review sampled promotions approved since each firm was authorised, across Buy Now Pay Later, crowdfunding and corporate finance.
• The consequences: Lucy Castledine, director of consumer investments, said that when approvers fail, people can be misled into harmful financial decisions. As a result of the work, one firm has already conducted a remediation exercise and some websites have been blocked to retail customers. The section 21 approver rules came into force on 7 February 2024.

On 28 May 2026 the FCA reported that financial firms have improved their sanctions systems and controls but must do more, noting that £37 billion of assets were frozen in the UK as of last year. Since February 2022 the FCA has proactively assessed the sanctions controls of more than 150 firms across the sector.

• The weak points: The most common root causes of reported breaches were weaknesses in due diligence, alert management, transaction and name screening, and the management of frozen assets and licences. Firms found trade sanctions, covering bans on exports and imports of goods, technologies and services, harder to detect and prevent than financial sanctions.
• The threat picture: Reports still relate primarily to the Russian regime, but the FCA is increasingly seeing reports linked to Libya, Iran and North Korea. On the same day it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation, adding to its existing arrangement with the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation.

On 18 May 2026 the FCA responded to the Treasury’s policy statement on reform of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, welcoming a framework that shifts emphasis from prescriptive legislation toward FCA rules and guidance. The regulator said it intends to consult on the key elements of the consumer credit framework previously set in legislation, where it has the powers to do so, across the whole consumer credit process.

• The anchor: The FCA’s approach will be underpinned by the Consumer Duty. It will consider existing consumer rights and protections, including cancellation, withdrawal and termination of agreements such as early settlement, with any proposals supported by evidence and a cost benefit analysis.

The PRA closed May with two banking policy statements consolidated in its May Regulatory Digest, published on 1 June. PS15/26, published on 28 May, finalises the first phase of the Pillar 2A review, giving feedback to CP12/25 and updating the methodologies and guidance the PRA uses to set Pillar 2A capital, the requirement that addresses risks not adequately captured by Pillar 1.

• What Pillar 2A Phase 1 changes: The policy statement reworks the credit-risk methodologies, including removing the benchmarking approach and setting systematic methodologies for exposures to central and regional governments and for retail lending, as the first stage of a two-phase review.
• CRR restatement: PS14/26, published on 27 May, finalises the restatement of Capital Requirements Regulation definitions into the PRA Rulebook, giving feedback to CP19/25 from July 2025, part of the wider transfer of retained EU law into the PRA’s own rules.

On 18 May 2026, alongside the joint tokenisation Call for Input, the PRA published two Dear CEO letters from David Bailey, Charlotte Gerken and Rebecca Jackson to the chief executives of all banks and designated investment firms. The first sets out updated guidance on the prudential treatment of tokenised assets, stablecoins and other cryptoasset exposures; the second clarifies the PRA’s expectations on innovations in the use of deposits, e-money and stablecoins.

• The message: Both letters reflect recent market developments and reaffirm the PRA’s expectations on risk management and compliance. They are the prudential complement to the FCA’s conduct-side tokenisation work, ensuring that as banks engage with tokenised assets and stablecoin-linked products, capital and risk treatment keep pace.

Hamilton Lane launched a tokenised share class providing access to its Global Private Assets evergreen fund, built with Allfunds Blockchain and Apex Group, with BBVA Asset Management named as the first distributor. The move, reported on 26 May 2026, lands squarely in the fortnight the FCA and Bank of England set out their tokenisation vision.

• Why it matters: A major private-markets manager bringing a tokenised wrapper to an evergreen private-assets fund is precisely the production-grade adoption the regulators say they want to see. It pairs tokenisation infrastructure providers with an established manager and a bank distributor, a template others are likely to follow.
• The governance corollary: Tokenised access to illiquid private assets compounds two challenges the regulators are watching: the operational integrity of the token layer and the valuation and liquidity governance of the underlying evergreen fund. Both must hold for the structure to deliver what it promises retail and wealth investors.

Capital Group and KKR launched what was reported on 27 May 2026 as their first public-private credit fund in Europe, extending a partnership that began in the United States. The hybrid structure blends public bonds with private debt and is designed for broader, wealth-channel access rather than purely institutional investors.

• The structure: According to reporting, the fund holds around 60% in public bonds and 40% in private debt, and offers monthly redemption windows capped at around 3% of assets, the semi-liquid design now standard for retail-accessible private credit.
• The watch item: Capped monthly redemptions are the pressure point. The blended-liquidity model works until redemption demand exceeds the cap, at which point the gate becomes the story, exactly the liquidity-redemption alignment the FCA and PRA have named as a supervisory priority for private markets.

Alongside the tokenisation vision, the Bank of England published a consultation on 18 May 2026 on extending the operating hours of its RTGS and CHAPS systems, setting out a staged path toward near 24/7 settlement. The proposed approach includes weekend and extended daily operating hours, subject to consultation and industry readiness.

• Why it matters: Round-the-clock settlement is the infrastructure that tokenised, programmable assets need to deliver their promised efficiency. It also supports faster cross-border payments and new settlement models. The Bank is separately working to enable tokenised equivalents of eligible assets to serve as collateral, and is targeting a live synchronisation service for 2028.

On 20 May 2026 the FCA warned drivers aged 17 to 25 about ghost broking scams, in which criminals sell bogus motor insurance policies through social media and messaging platforms. Victims are left unknowingly uninsured and exposed to prosecution as well as financial loss.