The FCA Isn't Just Cleaning Up Crypto — It's Rewriting the Rules of UK Markets

The Financial Conduct Authority has spent the past year building a reputation as a regulator with teeth. Crypto firms are being pushed out. Equity markets are being restructured. Insurance is being opened up to new competition. None of this is happening by accident.

Taken individually, each move looks like routine regulatory housekeeping. Taken together, they show something bigger: the FCA is repositioning UK financial markets for a different kind of competition — one based on transparency and enforcement, not just deregulation for its own sake.

Crypto: clean-up as a growth strategy

The FCA's crackdown on digital assets has already drawn a clear reaction from industry. Keith Grose, UK CEO of Coinbase, said the regulator's rules will "wipe out" firms that don't meet the bar, and that this is good news for the sector, not bad. His argument, reported by City AM, is straightforward: fewer bad actors means more trust, and more trust means more customers.

This is not a controversial idea inside the industry anymore. Serious players want the weak ones gone. A market flooded with unregulated platforms and thin compliance doesn't attract institutional money — it repels it. The FCA's approach signals that the UK wants to be a place where crypto firms operate to the same standard as everyone else, or not at all.

Equity markets: fixing a transparency problem hiding in plain sight

The more consequential shift is happening in equity markets, and it's had far less attention than it deserves.

The FCA has published a package of reforms aimed at improving transparency and access to market-wide information. The core problem it's solving: UK equity markets have become fragmented. Competition and innovation delivered real benefits — liquidity, choice, resilience — but they also made it harder and more expensive to get a full picture of trading activity. Market-wide data is under-used simply because it's hard to access.

The centrepiece of the reform is the equity consolidated tape — a single source that brings together trading information from across the market. The FCA has now settled the design questions and confirmed a path to deliver this within 18 months.

While that's being built, the FCA has already launched an interim tool: a market activity reporter for shares, giving daily visibility of UK equity trading volumes. This follows the UK bond consolidated tape, launched in June 2026, which has already attracted more than 1.6 million licence subscriptions — a strong signal that the market wanted this kind of infrastructure.

Simon Walls, the FCA's executive director of markets, framed it clearly:

"A downside of choice can be complexity, but this needn't mean a lack of transparency."

Industry response has been consistent across the board. Adam Farkas of AFME called it "a proportionate and evidence-based approach." Hugo Gordon of the Investment Association welcomed the completion of the tape's design and said focus should now shift to delivery. David Raw of UK Finance backed the inclusion of both pre- and post-trade data, calling it important for price formation and investment.

The FCA is consulting on two related papers — CP26/30 and CP26/31 — until 16 October 2026, covering both the tape's framework and broader market structure questions.

Why this matters beyond equities

The equity reforms aren't an isolated project. They sit inside a wider FCA programme covering:

Capital markets reform — improving transparency and confidence across trading venues
Crypto regulation — raising the bar for market entry and ongoing compliance
Insurance innovation — with the PRA, the FCA has also proposed a new captive insurance regime designed to make the UK a competitive base for this fast-growing market

The pattern across all three is the same: make markets easier to see, and easier to trust. The FCA isn't chasing headlines with each individual measure. It's building infrastructure — literal and regulatory — that changes how information flows and who gets to operate.

What this means for market participants

For firms operating in or around UK financial markets, the direction of travel is not subtle:

Compliance is no longer a cost centre to minimise — it's becoming a competitive filter. Firms that meet higher standards will benefit from cleaner, more trusted markets.
Data access is being centralised — the consolidated tape means market-wide information will no longer be the preserve of firms who can afford expensive data feeds.
New sectors are being opened deliberately — captive insurance is a clear signal the UK wants to compete for business that has historically gone elsewhere.

None of this suggests the FCA sees UK markets as broken. Its own assessment is that equity markets are "functioning effectively." But functioning effectively and being fully transparent are not the same thing — and the regulator is closing that gap methodically rather than dramatically.

Key takeaways

The FCA's crypto crackdown is designed to remove weak operators, not punish the sector — and industry figures like Coinbase's Keith Grose have said as much.
A new equity consolidated tape is coming within 18 months, aiming to fix long-standing fragmentation in UK equity market data.
An interim market activity reporter for shares is already live, giving daily visibility ahead of the full tape.
The UK bond consolidated tape has already gained over 1.6 million licence subscriptions, showing real demand for this kind of infrastructure.
A new captive insurance regime, proposed jointly by the PRA and FCA, aims to make the UK more competitive in this growing market.
Across crypto, equities and insurance, the FCA's direction is consistent: greater transparency, higher standards, and stronger UK market competitiveness.