The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published its Business Plan for 2018/19, setting out its key priorities for the coming year. Priorities in this year’s Business Plan reflect FCA resources needed to prepare for withdrawal from the European Union, given its impact both on FCA regulation and the companies its regulates, the FCA stated.

Alongside this work, the FCA said it will focus on seven cross-sector priority areas, based on assessments of where there is the greatest harm or potential for harm, and where intervention can have the greatest impact, among these priority areas:

Firms’ culture and governance that should drive behaviours and produce outcomes likely to benefit consumers and markets;

High-cost credit, building on the significant impact already made in the market;

Tackling financial crime, including fraud, scams and anti-money laundering to make the U.K. financial services sector a hostile place for criminals and a safe place for consumers;

Data security, resilience, and outsourcing since technology plays a pivotal role in delivering financial products and services;

Innovation, Big Data, technology and competition that are driving change in markets;

The treatment of existing customers to ensure that they do not get less attention or receive poorer outcomes than new customers; and

Long-term savings, pensions and intergenerational differences which reflects the changing U.K. population and their financial needs.

“The Business Plan is an important way in which we are transparent about our priorities for the year,” FCA Chief Executive Andrew Bailey said in a statement. “We recognise that this year we need to dedicate a significant amount of resource to withdrawal from the EU. As a result, setting our priorities this year has involved a particularly rigorous level of scrutiny and challenge to focus on areas where we see the greatest potential for harm.”

Alongside the Business Plan, the FCA is also publishing its annual fees Consultation Paper, Sector Views, and a Discussion Paper on its evaluation framework.

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