On 10 April 2025, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a statement providing an update on the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES) and pre-application support. The FCA is issuing this statement to provide an early update following the closure of its consultation (CP24/29) on the PISCES sandbox in December 2024 so as to give firms sight of its thinking as they are working up their plans.

Changes

The FCA states that it does not intend to make material changes to its consultation proposals nor mandate a ‘sweeper’ model for additional company disclosures. It does, however, intend to propose various technical changes to the FCA Board and these are set out in a table in the statement.

The FCA expects to publish a Policy Statement setting out the final rules for PISCES in June 2025 and any differences with the proposed changes described in the statement will be clearly identified.  

Pre-application support

The FCA is now also welcoming requests from prospective PISCES operators for it to provide preliminary feedback on proposed operating models and draft rulebooks.

This engagement can happen from now onwards, and those interested in operating a PISCES do not need to wait for the FCA to publish its final rules.

If firms would like to utilise this pre-application support, please contact PISCES@fca.org.uk.