COVID-19: how the UK financial regulators are responding

The UK financial services regulators (the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), the Bank of England (BoE) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA)) are closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation and have all taken measures to seek to protect markets and consumers and to ensure firms have adequate contingency plans in place.

The outbreak comes at a pivotal time for financial services regulation; a series of proposals on the regulatory framework for operational resilience are currently out for consultation (see our alert here). Operational resilience is a key priority for the regulators and COVID-19 has brought this to the limelight.

The following webpages set out the measures taken by the UK financial services regulators to date and key points firms should be aware of.

• COVID-19: how the Financial Conduct Authority has responded
• COVID-19: response from the Bank of England and Prudential Regulation Authority
• COVID-19: measures for the payment services and systems sector

Please see our separate webpage on the measures taken by the European financial regulators in response to COVID-19 here.

Help is at hand

If you would like to discuss any of the points arising out of the regulators' announcements or need assistance with reviewing your contingency plans, please get in touch.