The GRC Navigator

On 30 June 2026 the FCA published its final rules and guidance for regulated cryptoasset activities, the culmination of the crypto roadmap and underpinned by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026 made by Parliament on 4 February 2026. The rules will apply to firms granted permission under FSMA on or after 25 October 2027, when the regime commences, with authorisation applications opening from September 2026.

• The core package: PS26/13 applies the FCA Handbook to crypto firms, supported by finalised guidance on the Consumer Duty (FG26/5), operational resilience (FG26/6) and international firms (FG26/7).
• Full Handbook obligations: The Duty, COBS, SM&CR, operational resilience and financial crime frameworks are being applied across regulated crypto activities, not a lighter parallel regime.
• Joint stablecoin approach: The FCA and the Bank of England set out a coordinated approach to the regulation of systemic stablecoin issuers.

On 29 June 2026 the FCA proposed removing business for genuinely non-UK customers from the scope of the Consumer Duty, part of CP26/23 on Duty scope and proportionality in wholesale markets, closing on 19 September 2026. The change responds to the 2025 Mansion House ask to address the Duty's application to wholesale firms, and for many investment banks it will take a significant proportion of relevant revenues out of scope.

• Clearer boundaries: Market making, custody and safeguarding should not normally be caught, with worked examples of activities that fall outside the Duty.
• Distribution-chain clarity: Firms will be able to rely on others in a chain to meet their obligations, provided they act in good faith and respond to clear signs of harm.
• Insurance alongside: CP26/22 simplifies insurance rules and narrows ICOBS and PROD 4 territorial scope on the same day, closing 4 September 2026.

On 22 June 2026 the FCA opened CP26/20, proposing clearer due diligence obligations for SIPP operators and a new Pension Scheme Money and Assets regime, with responses due by 24 August 2026. The SIPP market has grown to roughly 567 billion pounds of assets under administration across 5.3 million consumers as at 2024, and the FCA has historically found cases of poor due diligence, weak record keeping and gaps in asset protection.

• Due diligence standards: Clearer Handbook rules would set out key due diligence obligations, focused on higher-risk, non-mainstream investments.
• Asset protection: The new Pension Scheme Money and Assets regime targets the risk of consumer harm when firms fail or wind down, particularly where unauthorised trustees are used.
• Duty alignment: Charlotte Clark framed the proposals as complementing the Consumer Duty by making clear what good practice looks like across all SIPP operators.

On 19 June 2026 the PRA published CP9/26, consulting on adjustments to the internal model approach for market risk under Basel 3.1, with responses due by 18 September 2026. The paper refines the market-risk framework while confirming that the implementation date for the internal model approach remains 1 January 2028, keeping the near-final rules in PS9/24 intact.

• Timeline held: The 1 January 2028 implementation date for the internal model approach is preserved, giving trading firms a fixed planning horizon.
• Basel coherence: The adjustments keep the standardised and internal approaches aligned with Basel standards while reducing operational friction.

On 25 June 2026 the PRA published its Annual Report 2025/26, covering activities for the year to 28 February 2026, alongside its report on delivery of the secondary competitiveness and growth objective and the Cost Benefit Analysis Panel's annual report. Together they set out how the PRA balances prudential standards against economic growth, and how it is held to account for that balance.

• The growth mandate: The competitiveness and growth accounting reflects the statutory secondary objective now shaping how the PRA calibrates and justifies its rules.
• Cost-benefit discipline: The CBA Panel report shows proportionality and evidenced cost-benefit analysis becoming embedded in PRA policymaking.

Baillie Gifford launched what it describes as the UK's first fully native tokenised mutual fund, regulated by the FCA and built in partnership with New York-based BNY, reported on 22 June 2026. The manager framed the vehicle as a global blueprint for how a regulated open-ended fund can be issued and administered on tokenised infrastructure.

• Native tokenisation: The fund is built natively on tokenised rails rather than retrofitting a token wrapper onto a conventional structure.
• Regulatory first: It arrives as the FCA finalises its crypto rules and progresses fund tokenisation policy, connecting a live product to the emerging framework.

Saba Capital was fundraising for a targeted 500 million dollars to launch a fund taking activist positions in UK investment trusts holding listed equity, reported by Investment Week on 25 June 2026. The vehicle formalises the activist campaign Saba has been running against UK trusts, and follows its launch of a UK Investment Trust UCITS ETF.

• Activism institutionalised: A dedicated 500 million dollar vehicle turns opportunistic pressure on trust boards into a standing strategy.
• Direct read-across: The raise lands in the same fortnight as CP26/21, sharpening the pressure on trust boards from both regulator and market at once.

On 19 June 2026 the Bank of England launched the scenario phase of its private markets system-wide exploratory scenario, a voluntary exercise run under the Financial Policy Committee and Prudential Regulation Committee and supported by the PRA, FCA and The Pensions Regulator. It is the first system-wide stress exercise aimed specifically at private markets, and the Bank will share initial findings in the July Financial Stability Report, with interim results later in 2026 and a final report in 2027.

• Why it matters now: The exercise arrives as private credit meets real redemption pressure, testing whether liquidity, leverage and valuation interact dangerously under stress.
• Regulators aligned: The FPC, PRA, FCA and TPR are running this together, which makes private-market risk a shared supervisory priority.

Industry research reported in late June found tokenisation reaching a credibility threshold, with around half of asset managers moving toward adoption, even as the industry pressed the FCA and Bank of England to provide certainty on the regulatory treatment of tokenised assets. Baillie Gifford's native tokenised fund gave the trend a concrete UK example within the same fortnight.

• From pilot to production: Adoption is shifting from proofs of concept to live products, raising the stakes on operational resilience and custody controls.
• Certainty demanded: Managers want clarity from the FCA and Bank of England before committing at scale, echoing the crypto framework finalised on 30 June.