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Wednesday, 13 May 2026

Compiled with AI from public news sources. Folio is editorial commentary for commercial-awareness practice, not legal advice. Verify any detail against the linked sources before relying on it professionally.

All Capital Markets Banking & Finance Energy & Tech Regulation Disputes International

Top Story/Regulation

FCA Launches Bereavement Probe and Government Introduces Enhancing Financial Services Bill in King's Speech Double-Header

Two significant regulatory developments landed on 13 May. First, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced a targeted probe into how investment companies handle bereaved clients — examining whether firms are meeting their obligations under the Consumer Duty framework, which requires financial services firms to deliver good outcomes for all customers, including those in vulnerable circumstances such as bereavement. The FCA's focus on bereavement handling sits within a broader post-Consumer Duty supervisory programme. The regulator has made vulnerability a consistent enforcement priority, and investment firms — particularly platforms, wealth managers, and discretionary fund managers — face scrutiny over the speed and sensitivity with which they manage account transfers, estate settlements, and ongoing advisory relationships following a client's death. Second, and separately, the Enhancing Financial Services Bill was introduced as part of the King's Speech legislative programme. The government stated its aim to make Britain "more competitive globally" and to harness the UK's "global leadership in financial services". The bill is intended to modernise how the sector is regulated and follows sustained lobbying by industry bodies, including Biba (the British Insurance Brokers' Association), which had called for legislation to reduce regulatory friction across the UK general insurance market. City minister Lucy Rigby is named as the key government interlocutor on the bill's content. Together, these developments illustrate the FCA operating on two simultaneous tracks: tightening conduct supervision under existing frameworks while Parliament prepares structural legislative reform of the regulatory perimeter.

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Bigger Picture

Sector Watch

King's Speech Legislative Surge

Today's State Opening of Parliament has dropped a dense legislative agenda on City law firms simultaneously: the Enhancing Financial Services Bill, energy independence legislation, EU trade reset measures, and late payment reforms each carry multi-practice area implications. Financial services regulatory teams face the most immediate workload — the new bill will require sustained engagement from initial consultation through to implementation, while the FCA's concurrent Consumer Duty enforcement programme keeps conduct lawyers equally busy. Firms with integrated regulatory, banking, and project finance practices — particularly those with strong government advisory relationships — are best positioned to capture the full breadth of the pipeline this legislation creates over the next 18 months.

One to Follow

The Tesco equal pay litigation's next substantive hearing, following the Court of Appeal's ruling that training documents remain in evidence for the claimants

With disclosure now confirmed as expansive, the litigation moves closer to a full equal value determination that could crystallise multi-billion-pound liability and set binding precedent for every UK retailer defending similar claims — sustaining a large pipeline of employment disputes and corporate risk advisory work for years.

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