meta_id 3197135

On May 23, 2026, and May 28, 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Board made several changes to the FCA Handbook affecting collective investment schemes, consumer credit reporting, and derivatives clearing requirements. The FCA introduced new rules enabling authorised fund managers to use distributed ledger technology (DLT) to maintain unitholder registers and records, with on-chain records recognised as primary records where appropriate operational safeguards are in place. The changes also permit smart contract functionality to facilitate unitholder processes. Additionally, the FCA introduced an optional Direct-to-Fund (D2F) dealing model, allowing investors to deal directly with funds through a single-stage process, whether tokenised or conventional. These instruments came into force on April 30, 2026. The FCA corrected an amendment made in error to the Senior Management Arrangements, Systems and Controls sourcebook (SYSC) 1.5.3R and addressed minor discrepancies in Consumer Credit Returns guidance. This instrument became effective on May 29, 2026. The FCA introduced a new annual Retail Banking Business Models (R2B2) regulatory return, replacing previous ad hoc data collections for banks and building societies meeting reporting thresholds. The return includes sub-product breakdowns of financial and volume-based measures across retail banking business models, supporting a more proportionate and predictable approach to data collection. This instrument came into force on June 1, 2026. The FCA increased the clearing threshold for commodity derivatives under UK European Markets Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) from €3 billion to €6 billion, effective May 29, 2026. This adjustment responds to sustained increases in commodity prices since the threshold was originally set in 2016, and addresses concerns that fixed nominal thresholds disadvantage UK counterparties. The FCA views this as a transitional measure pending wider reforms to the UK EMIR clearing regime. The FCA also made minor administrative changes to the Short Selling Rules sourcebook, effective July 13, 2026, with Part 2 of Annex A effective January 1, 2027.