Money Covered: The Week That Was – 12 June 2026

Welcome to The Week That Was, a round-up of key events in the financial services sector over the last seven days.

The first of Season 5 of our podcast, Money Covered – The Month That Was, was released this week. David Allinson and Mel Redding discuss the FCA’s proposed section 404 consumer redress scheme for vehicle finance.

To listen to this and all previous episodes, please click here. 

Headline development

FCA launches civil action against Neil Woodford's subscription venture

On 8 June 2026, the FCA announced it has started civil proceedings seeking an injunction against Neil Woodford and his subscription-based website, W4.0 (t/a W Four Point Zero FZE LLC), which was created in 2025.

The FCA alleges Woodford and W4.0 have been providing regulated investment advice and making financial promotions via the subscription platform without authorisation, in breach of sections 19 and 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

The FCA is seeking to stop the allegedly unlawful activities. The action follows the FCA’s 2025 enforcement against Woodford and Woodford Investment Management, which resulted in fines of £5.9m and £40m for failings around the suspension and closure of the Woodford Equity Income Fund.

To read the FCA's press release, please click here.

Accountants

ACCA responds to HMRC consultation on modernising Company Tax Returns

In March 2026, HMRC published a consultation regarding amendments to Corporation Tax computations, mandatory online filing and proposals for effective enforcement. The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has now published its response to HMRC's consultation. 

Whilst there remain some concerns to be addressed, ACCA supports the move towards a standardised, fully tagged format for Corporation Tax calculations. The recognised benefits of standardisation include reduced repetition, fewer enquiries and improved efficiency. 

ACCA reiterates its three core principles for effective tax administration: simplicity, certainty and stability. In practical terms, ACCA highlights several areas which it says HMRC should address, including:

• The potential risk and need for clarity around the term “approved” (to ensure consistent meaning for HMRC, taxpayers and agents).
• Alignment with complete accounting periods (to avoid administrative burdens from mid-period changes).
• Maintaining flexibility within the system, including how “lock tags” would operate in practice and how changes / blocking of submissions would be handled.

The response emphasises that any new compliance requirements, irrespective of the potential benefits, must remain proportionate for businesses. Especially against a difficult and uncertain economic backdrop. 

To read the HMRC consultation, please click here.

To read the ACCA's response, please click here.

Auditors

FRC announces new innovation and improvement initiatives 

The FRC announced three new initiatives last week as part of their Innovation and Improvement Hub – a new sandbox aimed at audit tech and AI, the second round of the simplifying annual reporting sandbox, and a research programme to understand barriers to adoption of technology in audits.

The sandboxes provide an opportunity for businesses and audit firms to closely collaborate with and obtain feedback from regulatory experts to help SMEs simplify their annual reports, and for audit firms to test use cases for the application of new technology, including generative and agentic AI, while ensuring these technological applications still comply with regulatory requirements.

The applications for the Audit Tech and AI Sandbox opened last week and close on 17 July 2026.  The application is open to audit firms of all sizes and specialisms, and the FRC is looking for applicants who have identified a specific technological application for consideration and feedback, which they believe can improve their audit work or otherwise innovate in the industry.

The applications for the second cohort in the Simplifying Annual Reporting Sandbox are currently open now and close on 3 July 2026.  The FRC received positive feedback from participants in the first round of the sandbox and is keen to continue this work to help SMEs reduce their annual reporting burden while still meeting regulatory requirements.  

To read more about the Audit Tech and AI Sandbox, please click here.

To read more about the Simplifying Annual Reporting Sandbox, please click here.

Tax practitioners 

New HMRC manual highlights tax adviser scope and entity pitfalls

On 1 June 2026, HMRC published a new manual on Mandatory Tax Adviser Registration (the Manual).

The Manual provides guidance on the requirements and conditions to mandatory tax adviser registration. Some points of note within the Manual include:

1. The definitions of "tax adviser" in the registration and "sanctionable conduct" rules overlap, but they still differ and require separate analysis.

2. Subcontractors to tax advisors may fall into the category of "registerable" and will need to consider all activities that their business is involved in – not just the primary services.

3. There is specific guidance aimed at conveyancers and payroll organisations. 

The Manual also provides guidance on how legal entities are considered for registration, including group members being considered separately. Guidance is also provided on who normally constitutes a relevant individual in circumstances where someone plays a significant role in tax related activities.

The Manuel states that HMRC will regularly check condition satisfaction for relevant individuals at "appropriate intervals", which is likely to be on a "risk-based" basis. HMRC is expected to provide subsequent guidance on: Complex business structures and mixed-activity businesses; notifying HMRC of changes to relevant individuals; and acceptable evidence for non-UK businesses and relevant individuals. 

To read the Manual, please click here.

Pensions

TPR and the FCA reiterate collaboration commitment 

At a recent joint session at the Pensions Management Institute’s annual conference in London, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and The Pensions Regulator (TPR) reiterated their commitment to closer collaboration, alongside other government departments, as the pensions market continues to evolve.

The regulators emphasised that consumers care less about regulatory boundaries and more about retirement outcomes. The FCA highlighted ongoing work with TPR across value for money, pension investment and retirement income, aimed at improving saver outcomes.

Both regulators flagged the need for further collaboration in areas such as retirement guidance, targeted support and cyber resilience, alongside managing challenges arising from major reforms and legacy technology. It was recognised that regulatory duplication is a real concern and moving forward, there will be a more targeted approach to ensure effective data collection, analysis and publication. 

To read more, please click here.

Draft regulations tighten SSAS checks

On 9 June 2025, the government published draft regulations which propose targeted changes to the pension transfer red/amber flag regime and controls around small self administered schemes (SSASs).

A new “red flag” would apply where a SSAS transfer is proposed but evidence does not demonstrate an employment link with the receiving occupational scheme. The government says that this is a strong scam indicator and the intent is to give providers a clearer basis to refuse suspicious transfers.

The draft also lowers the evidential threshold for allowing transfers to “on the balance of probabilities”, rather than “beyond reasonable doubt”. It also proposes adding a condition where transfers “to a reputable firm” are sufficient.

To reduce friction for legitimate cases, the overseas investment “amber flag” would be removed, and members who took Money and Pensions Service guidance within the last 12 months would not need to repeat it when consolidating multiple pots. The consultation closes 21/07/2026.

To read more, please click here. 

FCA regulated entities 

FCA to 'cut complexity' on climate reporting rules 

The FCA has opened a consultation on changes to climate reporting for investment products, with plans to implement new rules later this year. The regulator claims the measures could save investment firms about £20m a year by simplifying the rules. 

Under the new proposals, retail investors will receive simpler, more targeted information on how climate risks may affect a product’s financial performance and institutional clients will be able to request key emissions data from firms, but this detail will no longer need to be published in product-level reports (which the FCA notes "are often seen as too complex by investors and not widely used"). 

The consultation is open until 13 July 2026. The FCA aims to finalise and implement the rule change in the autumn.

To read the consultation, please click here. 

FCA consults on allowing limited crypto exchange-traded notes within UK 

The FCA has published a consultation which proposes to allow UK-domiciled UCITS (collective investments in transferable securities) and non-UCITS retail schemes to obtain indirect exposure to crypto assets via cryptocurrency exchange-traded notes (ETN), subject to a 10% cap. The proposed 10% cap will not apply to qualified investor schemes, as these can only be marketed to professional investors.

The FCA frames this as permissible only where it is consistent with the fund’s disclosed investment objectives and risk profile. The FCA does not consider that 'significant' exposure to the market is appropriate at this stage, given the speculative nature of the underlying assets. This proposal follows Luxembourg's financial regulator's decision to allow indirect cryptocurrency access with a 10% limit in place. 

To read more, please click here.

To read the consultation, please click here.

FCA survey on charges to deceased clients 

A report by Citywire states that it has seen a survey sent by the FCA to a sample of advice firms as part of its review into how firms deal with bereaved customers. The review was announced last month and concerns advice firms, wealth managers and platforms.

The survey reportedly asks firms about communications with bereaved customers, bereavement processes, customer vulnerability, governance, and costs and charges.

One focus is whether firms continue to apply ongoing charges after a client has died. The survey asks whether advice, service or management fees continue during the bereavement process and, if so, how those charges are communicated to those dealing with the deceased customer’s affairs.

The survey also asks:

• Whether firms assess the fairness of charges applied during bereavement.
• Whether charges are applied under an existing client agreement or under a new contract with the bereaved customer.
• How firms identify and remedy mistaken charges applied after a customer’s death.
• How staff are trained to deal with bereaved customers.
• How firms identify vulnerability during bereavement cases.
• The number of complaints received relating to deceased clients; and
• What documents firms request when notified of a customer’s death.

Firms are also asked to provide details of the time taken to resolve bereavement cases, including examples of their quickest and slowest cases.

The exercise follows comments made by the FCA last year that it had intervened where some advice firms were continuing to charge ongoing fees after a client’s death. The survey suggests the regulator’s focus extends beyond charging practices alone and includes the wider experience of bereaved customers, including communication, vulnerability and the speed with which cases are resolved.

At this stage, the FCA does not appear to have published findings from the review. However, firms may wish to consider whether their bereavement processes, charging practices and customer communications would withstand regulatory scrutiny if similar information were requested.

To read Citywire's report, please click here.

FOS replies to FCA's consultation paper on simplifying advice rules 

In March 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a consultation paper setting out its proposals on simplifying pensions and investment advice rules.  The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has now published its response to the consultation paper.

FOS says that while it does not anticipate the proposals made by the FCA will have a detrimental impact on the determination of complaints, it does warn that a shift towards broader principles rather than specific rules will increase the likelihood for differing interpretations of those broader principles, potentially resulting in a more contentious complaints resolution process.  

To guard against this, FOS has called for the FCA to provide additional guidance on how it expects the principles to be applied, such as case studies and examples of good and bad practice.  

To read FOS' response, please click here.

Fake reviews and the Consumer Duty 

The FCA is reported to have issued guidance indicating that fake or manipulated reviews can create Consumer Duty risk, as they can affect how consumers understand financial products or services.

The guidance reportedly says that misleading or inauthentic information could undermine Consumer Duty outcomes where it has a material impact on consumer understanding. It also refers to the role of third parties in distribution or marketing arrangements, and the need for firms to take reasonable and proportionate steps to manage the risk of misleading information.

This sits alongside the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which gives the CMA stronger powers in relation to fake reviews.

For regulated firms, the practical point is that reviews, testimonials and ratings may influence customer decisions. Firms using reviews, or relying on third-party platforms, should consider whether review-related risks are properly addressed in their Consumer Duty, financial promotions and governance arrangements.

To read more, please click here.

With thanks to this week's contributors: Heather Buttifant, James Parsons, Brendan Marrinan, Ben Simmonds, Alison Thomas and Kerone Thomas

If you have any queries please do get in contact with a member of the team, or your usual RPC contact.