FCA's Streamlined Asset Management Rulebook Could Save Firms £128 Million a Year: Three Consultations on Fund Reporting, the UK AIFM Regime and Remuneration Close Between September and October

On July 14, 2026, the UK Financial Conduct Authority published a press release titled Streamlined rulebook to save asset managers £128m a year. The release says the FCA's proposals could save asset managers £128 million annually. It describes the aims of the proposals as tailoring requirements proportionately, cutting firms' costs and providing better data for supervision. The proposals are contained in three consultation papers, and they remain proposals: the FCA is inviting feedback before making final decisions. This article summarises the press release. The release gives no date for the final rules and does not explain how the £128 million figure was calculated, so this article cannot reproduce that arithmetic.

The three consultations

The first is CP26/26, on a new framework called FRAME, short for Fund Reporting for Asset Management Entities. Feedback is due by September 22, 2026. The FCA says that a large share of the £128 million saving would come from simplifying these reporting requirements and tailoring them to the UK industry. The release does not say what share, and it does not give a separate saving for each paper.

The second is CP26/28, which proposes to modernise and simplify the rules that apply to alternative investment fund managers in the UK. The release describes them as AIFMD-related rules dating from 2013, that is, rules connected to the European Union's Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive that the UK carried into its own regime. Feedback is due by October 14, 2026.

The third is CP26/27, on remuneration. It proposes to replace overlapping remuneration codes with a clearer and more proportionate framework for firms that are regulated solely by the FCA, which the release calls solo-regulated firms. The proposal would cover full-scope alternative investment fund managers, management companies of UCITS funds, and investment firms that are not small and non-interconnected under the MIFIDPRU prudential regime. Feedback is due by September 16, 2026. The remuneration proposals apply only to the listed types of firm and not to all asset managers.

Dates at a glance

The three feedback deadlines fall in the order September 16 for remuneration, September 22 for fund reporting and October 14 for the UK AIFM regime. The remuneration consultation therefore closes first, calculated here as six days before the FRAME deadline and 28 days before the AIFM deadline.

What the FCA said

Simon Walls, the FCA's executive director for markets, was quoted in the release. He said the changes would save industry tens of millions of pounds a year and would boost freedom for smaller firms to find new ways to achieve the same high standards. The release's wording of tens of millions is a less precise figure than the £128 million headline, and the release does not reconcile the two. Readers should therefore treat £128 million as the FCA's headline estimate for the full set of proposals and tens of millions as the executive's description, without assuming that one supersedes the other.

Who is affected

The three papers reach different groups. FRAME, as the release describes it, concerns how asset management entities report on their funds, so it may matter to the largest number of firms. The AIFM papers concern managers of alternative funds such as hedge funds and private market vehicles, and the remuneration paper is limited to the three categories of firm named above. A firm that falls into more than one category, for instance a manager that runs both UCITS and alternative funds, could be affected by more than one consultation. That is a general observation about how the categories work and not a statement in the release.

How this fits the FCA's wider approach

The release presents these papers as part of the FCA's effort to reduce unnecessary cost and complexity. The sources used here do not describe the other parts of that effort in detail, so this article does not list them. The central claim is that requirements can be simplified without lowering standards, which is a claim the consultations will test. Firms and trade bodies will have the opportunity to say whether the proposed reporting regime really reduces work, or merely changes it.

What firms should consider

Asset managers in scope should check which of the three papers affect them, estimate the cost of their current reporting and remuneration arrangements against the proposals, and decide whether to respond before the deadlines. Smaller firms may be particularly interested in the remuneration changes and in the freedom to find new ways to meet standards that Walls described. Firms should not change processes yet, because the proposals could change.

What is not known

Final rules are not scheduled in the release. The saving is an estimate for the proposals as drafted, and its method is not given. The release does not say how many firms would benefit or how the saving would be spread between large and small managers. Readers should consult the consultation papers themselves for the detail and for how to respond. This article is general information and not legal advice.