The FCA has published its annual report and accounts 2025/26 alongside the first-year update against its outcomes and metrics 2025–2030 framework, marking the first year of delivery against its five-year strategy. Thistle Initiatives Manager Elliott Day sets out what has substantively changed, why it matters and what UK regulated firms should be thinking about now.
The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) annual report and accounts and accompanying outcomes and metrics report provide the clearest indication yet of how the FCA intends to measure progress against its 2025-2030 strategy. For the first time, the FCA has published baseline results against the measures it will use to track whether its strategy is delivering the outcomes it expects over the coming years.
While headline figures include an estimated £5.6 billion of benefits delivered to consumers, firms and the wider economy, regulated firms are likely to be equally interested in the publication of the outcomes and metrics framework that will be used to assess performance over the coming years.
For compliance leaders, the publications offer a useful indication of where regulatory resources are being directed and how supervisory priorities are increasingly being linked to measurable outcomes, data and evidence.
Key Changes
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First Year of the FCA's Five-Year Strategy
The report marks the first year of delivery against the FCA's 2025-2030 strategy and establishes a baseline against which future progress will be measured. -
Introduction of Outcomes and Metrics Reporting
The FCA has published the first set of data supporting its outcomes and metrics framework, providing greater transparency around how it intends to assess performance across consumers, markets and the wider economy. -
Continued Focus on Becoming a Smarter Regulator
The report reinforces the FCA's intention to make greater use of data, intelligence and technology to identify emerging risks and target supervisory activity more effectively.
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Ongoing Emphasis on Fighting Financial Crime
Financial crime remains one of the regulator's four strategic priorities, sitting alongside helping consumers, supporting growth and becoming a smarter regulator.
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Stronger Focus on Demonstrating Impact
The report places significant emphasis on measurable outcomes and the real-world impact of regulatory intervention, rather than activity metrics alone.
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Financial Crime Outcomes Formally Measured
The FCA has published year 1 data against its financial crime outcomes, including investment fraud, authorised push payment (APP) fraud and market integrity indicators, providing early insight into how progress will be assessed over the life of the strategy. The data shows that reported investment fraud and APP fraud both increased during the year, while the FCA also saw increases across the indicators it uses to monitor potential market abuse. This underlines why financial crime remains one of the FCA's core supervisory priorities.
Why This Matters for UK-Regulated Firms
Neither publication introduces new financial crime requirements. It does, however, provide a clearer indication of how the FCA increasingly views regulatory effectiveness through the lens of outcomes, evidence and demonstrable impact. This mirrors developments firms have already been experiencing across supervisory engagement. The FCA is often less interested in whether controls exist on paper and more interested in whether firms can evidence that those controls operate effectively in practice.
The continued emphasis on becoming a smarter regulator also points towards increasingly data-led supervision. This is likely to support more targeted interventions, particularly where activity sits within higher-risk sectors, products, delivery channels or jurisdictions.
The publications also reinforce the growing importance of management information, governance oversight and control effectiveness. Where weaknesses are identified, firms may increasingly be expected to demonstrate not only that issues have been recognised but also how they have been investigated, challenged and remediated.
The financial crime metrics themselves are also notable. Year 1 data shows continued growth in both investment fraud and APP fraud, alongside increases in the FCA's market integrity indicators. While the FCA acknowledges that many factors sit outside its direct control, the results reinforce the scale of the challenge and suggest that prevention, disruption and intelligence-led supervision are likely to remain key areas of regulatory focus. For firms with significant payments activity, cross-border exposure, complex customer structures or reliance on third-party providers, the publications provide a further indication that supervisory scrutiny will continue to focus on how risks are understood, evidenced and managed in practice.
Practical Implications
The impact of the FCA's strategic direction will vary by business model, but several themes are likely to be relevant where financial crime exposure exists.
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Governance and Management Information
Supervisors are likely to remain focused on whether governance forums receive meaningful and purpose-led management information that drives challenge, decision-making and remediation.
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Control Effectiveness
Firms may come under greater pressure to evidence how financial crime compliance controls operate in practice rather than relying solely on documented frameworks.
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Risk Assessment Methodologies
Where firms operate in higher-risk sectors, jurisdictions or customer segments, regulators are likely to continue scrutinising whether risk assessments remain current, evidence-based and reflective of actual exposure.
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Data Quality and Systems
As supervision becomes increasingly data-led, weaknesses in underlying data, technology infrastructure or outsourced control environments may attract greater attention.
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Technology and Analytics
As fraudsters increasingly use technology to operate at greater scale and speed, firms may find regulators take a closer interest in how technology is being used to detect and prevent financial crime. This includes understanding the limits of automated monitoring tools and whether they continue to identify relevant risks as criminal methods change.
What Firms Should Consider Now
Against this backdrop, firms may wish to reflect on a small number of core questions.
- Can management information demonstrate the effectiveness of key financial crime controls?
- Does governance drive meaningful oversight and decision-making?
- Are risk assessments aligned to current business activity?
- Can control effectiveness be demonstrated through evidence?
- Are data, technology and third-party dependencies appropriately understood?
Our Closing View
Taken together, the FCA's annual report and outcomes & metrics year 1 update provide a useful indication of the direction of future supervision. The regulator continues to place increasing emphasis on outcomes, evidence and measurable impact. For firms, the focus is likely to remain on demonstrating that existing controls are operating effectively, remain proportionate to current risks and can withstand increasingly data-driven supervisory scrutiny.
How Thistle Initiatives Can Help
Thistle's financial crime team supports firms across the full compliance lifecycle, from independent assurance and regulatory reviews through to remediation, transformation and ongoing managed services.
Whether firms are assessing the effectiveness of existing arrangements, responding to regulatory findings, implementing change or strengthening day-to-day compliance operations, we provide practical support tailored to the firm's risk profile, business model and regulatory obligations.
Our aim is simple: to help firms build and maintain financial crime frameworks that remain effective, proportionate and aligned to evolving regulatory expectations.
Get in touch at info@thistleinitiatives.co.uk or call 0207 436 0630 to speak with our team.
Meet the Expert
Elliott Day, Manager 
Elliott is a manager within Thistle’s Financial Crime team, supporting fintech and financial services clients to strengthen controls, uplift governance, and deliver regulatory remediation. His experience spans AML, sanctions, KYC/KYB, onboarding and risk assessment, with a focus on proportionate, risk-based frameworks and practical assurance.
Before joining Thistle, Elliott held financial crime and compliance roles across payments and fintech, enhancing policies, procedures and monitoring arrangements. Elliott has also contributed to industry publications, including editorials for The Company Lawyer.