On 21 November 2025, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published Consultation Paper 25/33: Regulatory fees and levies: Policy proposals for 2026/27 (CP25/33).

In CP25/33, the FCA sets out its proposed policy changes to the way it will raise FCA fees from 2026/27, as well as some adjustments to the rules affecting Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) levies. The FCA will publish a further consultation paper in the Spring setting out its proposals on fee and levy rates for 2026/27.

CP25/33 includes the following sections and key proposals:

  • Chapter 2 – proposed changes to the Fees Manual of the FCA Handbook (FEES): The proposals in this chapter include Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange Systems (PISCES) periodic fees, targeted support fees and levies, Cryptoasset firms’ application firms and Deferred Payment Credit (DPC) fees and levies. Key points include:
    • The creation of a new fee-block for the operators of PISCES and basing an operator’s periodic fee on regulated income, with firms paying a baseline annual fee of £2,200. The FCA also proposes firms should only start paying a variable fee above a threshold of £500,000 of regulated income.
    • The FCA proposes to extend the definition of fee-block A.13 to include the new activity of providing targeted support where firms already authorised for activities in fee-block A.13 will pay a Category 2 variation of permission fee for extending their activity to undertake targeted support and firms seeking new authorisation will pay a Category 4 application fee to join fee-block A.13. The FCA also proposes to add targeted support to Class 2, Category 2.1 (life distribution and investment intermediation) for FSCS levies where both FSCS and FOS levies will be based on annual eligible income. Along with these proposals, the FCA is considering sharing the associated costs from the supervision of targeted support to other fee blocks, specifically A.7 and A.9. The FCA will determine these allocations when it consults on fee-rates in Spring 2026.
    • For cryptoasset firms’ application fees for authorisation, the proposes fees to be allocated into 10 standard pricing categories based on firms’ cryptoasset activities. The FCA will consult on the periodic fee structure, FSCS levies (if applicable) and the FOS industry block for firms with cryptoasset activity permissions in November 2026.
    • The FCA proposes a registration and application fee structure for DPC activities that align with the Temporary Permissions Regime and the proposal to add DPC activities to the FOS consumer credit fee-block where firms will pay a Category 1 registration fee. The CP notes that DPC activities will remain out of scope of FSCS cover.
    • Other proposals from the FCA include removing the £3 agent registration fee for payment institutions, registered account information service providers, and electronic money institutions along with minor amendments to FEES 3 Annex 8 and FEES 4 Annex 1A.
  • Chapter 3 – proposed changes to FEES 5 (FOS) and FEES 6 (FSCS): The FCA proposes to withdraw its previously planned expansion of the definition of ‘relevant business’ due to enter into force on 1 April 2026 under FEES 5 of the Handbook Glossary. The definition is used by firms to calculate the FOS Compulsory Jurisdiction level for certain industry blocks or eligible complainants, including non-consumers. Although the change was intended to ensure that the FOS’s levy accurately reflects the cost of handling these complaints, according to CP25/33, this may lead to disproportionately higher fees as the expanded definition would significantly increase the relevant business firms would report relative to the small number of complaints the FOS receive from non-consumer eligible complainants about these firms. As a result, the FCA now intends to retain the current consumer-only definition and will explore more targeted future measures for specific industry blocks where non-consumer complaints have a greater resource impact. The FCA does not propose any changes to FEES 6.
  • Chapter 4 – proposals the FCA are consulting with the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to avoid unnecessary duplication: This includes the proposal to amend invoice due dates for firms which pay £50,000 or more in FCA or PRA fees in a year (referred to as ‘payments on account’) amending both the FCA Handbook and PRA Rulebook.
  • Chapter 5 – fees policy updates: Updates include:
    • Expanding the scope of the skilled person review of historical motor finance discretionary commission arrangements to all other lenders including the original 10 lenders to reflect the scope of the FCA’s consultation on its redress scheme in CP 25/27. The FCA mentions that it expects to consult on fee-rates in Spring 2026, inviting feedback on whether brokers should be included in future project cost recovery proposals and if additional information will need to be requested from lenders.
    • A proposal to consider a pro-rating fee structure for firms which cancel their permissions; updating outdated names for fee-blocks in the Financial Penalty Scheme and to review fee-block A.10 metric for calculating fees to be more risk-sensitive.
    • Further proposals include the FCA not amending rules in respect to the Berne Financial Services Agreement (BFSA). The FCA does not propose to charge fees to incoming Swiss firms for regulated activities they perform under the BFSA. Where Swiss firms are already FCA authorised to undertake regulated activities that can be performed under the BFSA and wish to use the BFSA regime, they must apply to cancel or vary their permissions for those activities before notifying the FCA to supply those same activities under the BFSA. Once cancelled, firms will no longer pay fees in future years for those activities. They must continue to pay fees and report tariff data for any permissions they continue to hold. The FCA is not proposing to change any rules.
    • The FCA’s intention to consult on its application fee proposals for the provision of ESG ratings and periodic fee structure for ESG ratings providers in November 2026.

The proposals are relevant to all FCA fee-payers, levy-payers of the FOS and FSCS, and to any business considering applying for FCA authorisation or registration.

The deadline for feedback to this consultation is 9 January 2026 for any proposals relating to targeted support and 16 January 2026 for all other proposals.