Welcome to the UKGI weekly regulation update service for Aviva ABC brokers

Link(s):

Financial Regulators Complaints Commissioner Annual Reports and regulator responses – GOV.UK Financial Services Regulators Complaints Commissioner Annual Report and Accounts 2025-26 and regulator responses – GOV.UK FSCC_Annual_report_2026.pdf FCAs_response_to_the_Complaints_Commissioners_Annual_Report_2025_2026.pdf FCA’s response to the Complaints Commissioner’s Annual Report 2025/26 Response to the Complaints Commissioner’s Annual Report 2025/26: ‘Reviewing how the financial services regulators consider complaints’

Context

HM Treasury has published the Annual Report from the Financial Services Regulators Complaints Commissioner for the year ended 31 March 2026.  It has also published the responses to the report from the FCA and the PRA,

Key points to note and next actions

• The Financial Regulators Complaints Commissioner (the “Commissioner”) provides an independent review of complaints about the UK financial services regulators. The role was established by Parliament to support transparency, accountability and confidence in regulatory decision‑making. The Commissioner considers complaints about the FCA and the Prudential Regulation Authority, as well as certain complaints against the Bank of England.
• 650 complaints and enquiries were closed, of which 82% were about the FCA, 17% were general enquiries, 1.4% were about the PRA, 0.2% were about the Payment Services Regulator (PSR).
• 210 allegations were investigated of which 24 were upheld; there were 16 disagreements with the decision set out in the FCA’s original decision letter.
• 96.3% of preliminary reports on individual complaints were issued within the Commissioner’s service levels.
• The Commissioner set out 34 remedies for the FCA, with the FCA not accepting three of them.
• In the year, the Commissioner closed 46 fewer complaints and enquiries (650) than the Commissioner received (696).
• A wide variety of themes are explored in the Report, and it is fair to assume that (based on the fact that some 84% of the Commissioner’s efforts involve the FCA) that these re issues arising for the FCA:

Confidentiality	The FCA’s role in connection to the FOS	Delays and deferrals in complex and group cases
Compensation	Time Bar	The FCA in connection to P2P lending platforms
Whistleblowing	Fee relating complaints
Market Oversight	Vulnerable complaints

• The Commissioner commented on the FCA’s intervention in the Guaranteed Asset Protection insurance market (GAP), including whether it was appropriate to allow a period during which GAP insurance was unavailable to consumers. The Commissioner concluded that the FCA had balanced a range of competing considerations, including the need to ensure fair value while supporting effective market functioning, and did not uphold the complaint.
• There were also two complaints regarding the FCA’s handling of motor finance. The FCA has ruled that one of the complaints is ineligible, citing possible time-bar restrictions. This is being reviewed, to see whether this determination is accurate, and the Commissioner is also reviewing the other case.