Our perimeter (remit) determines the activities we regulate and the level of protection consumers can expect when they buy financial services and products.
Our perimeter is set by the Government and Parliament, and it determines what we do and don’t regulate.
We have significant responsibility. We regulate the conduct of nearly 45,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, competitive and fair.
Our perimeter report
We play a fundamental role in ensuring financial services markets in the United Kingdom function well.
Our work helps to protect the UK’s 52.1 million customers of financial services products and promotes effective competition in their interest. It’s important we communicate clearly where our powers lie, and our perimeter report[1] is part of that.
Working with the Government, we assess the state of our perimeter, clarify complexities, explain the ways we are pre-empting or responding to issues, and highlight gaps in legislation and areas of potential harm.
Where we don’t have the powers we believe we need, we work with the Government and Parliament towards achieving them.
Where we can, we also take action when we identify problems outside our perimeter that are causing harm.
We work closely with our partner agencies[2] to prevent harm and support consumers if things go wrong. We proactively communicate and share information, particularly when our partners have the power to act and we don’t, or when they are better placed to do so.
The introduction of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 has also changed our perimeter. We have noted these changes in our Perimeter Report.
While there have been a number of changes as a result, we have also noted in our Perimeter Report areas where we believe further legislative change is needed to expand our perimeter and to advance our statutory objectives, including protecting consumers from harm.