UK FCA consults on regulated fees and levies for 2026/27

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published consultation paper CP26/11 setting out its proposed fees and levies for 2026/27. The FCA is consulting on rules that enable it to raise regulatory fees and levies in 2026/27 to fund the FCA and UK Financial Ombudsman Service, as well as to collect specific levies on behalf of government departments.

The FCA is proposing to increase minimum and flat rate fees, as well as application fees, by 1%, in line with the increase in the ongoing regulatory activities (ORA) budget, and below the rate of inflation. To keep fee increases to a minimum, it has kept its budgeted headcount flat, which accounts for around two-thirds of the FCA's costs, and it has looked to absorb inflationary increases and cost uplifts by finding efficiencies and by identifying savings in its budget. The FCA highlights that this is the lowest rise in the ORA fees budget since 2017/18 and the lowest AFR increase in a decade, at just 0.7%. For 2026/27, the FCA also confirms that it does not intend to recover its costs associated with certain projects. This includes work on significant exceptional projects such as motor finance work. For costs incurred on these exceptional projects in 2026/27, the FCA will consult on its approach in its 2027 spring fee-rates consultation.

The deadline for comments is 30 April. The FCA plans to publish a policy statement in early July, subject to Board approval in June. Certain fee-payers have been invoiced from February for 'on-account' payments. They will be invoiced for the remaining balance in September. Other firms will be invoiced from July, based on the new fees and levies. Firms can use the FCA's online fee calculator to estimate their fees for 2026/27.

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