The UK’s financial regulator has come under fire for its announcement that it is going to delete emails after a year in an effort to become a more “efficient” regulator, raising concerns that it might accidentally erase evidence in the process.
Up until now, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has retained all emails as a matter of policy, with staff being responsible for marking emails that should be saved as important records. But from April 1, 2025, only emails that are actively archived on a central repository will be kept, with inboxes being wiped after a year as part of a drive to improve records management.
