What the FCA has announced

On 2 July 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published proposals to simplify how platforms, advisers and wealth managers communicate the costs of investing, alongside a reminder that firms must communicate with consumers in plain English. The regulator has opened a consultation (CP26/24), with responses due by 21 August, and has simultaneously published the results of a review into current pre-sale disclosure documents.

The review findings are pointed. Of 132 documents examined for readability, only 6% were written in plain English, and every document reviewed was more complex than GCSE level. The FCA also notes that 30% of non-advised platform users said they did not know how much they are charged for investing.

What it means in practice

The proposals would bring all investment cost disclosures into line with the FCA’s earlier product disclosure reforms, creating a more consistent framework. In practice, distributors would present their own costs alongside product costs, consistent with the Consumer Composite Investments (CCI) format, and account regularly for the total cost of investing. The rules would also cover how firms disclose fees they charge and any interest they pay — or retain — on client cash, an area the FCA links directly to the Consumer Duty and its 2023 Dear CEO Letter on interest on cash and “double dipping.”

The direction of travel is confirmed by a firm deadline. From June 2027, firms will need to follow the CCI rules, finalised last year, which replace the PRIIPs and UCITS disclosure documents. From that date, investment firms must provide genuinely plain-English information to help consumers choose products with confidence. As the FCA’s Lucy Castledine framed it, the aim is for more consumers to feel confident investing by receiving clearer information on products and charges.

Why this matters for crypto and VASP firms

The consultation targets mainstream investment products, so nothing here changes crypto rules directly. But the signal for the wider consumer investment market is unambiguous: the FCA expects clear, balanced, jargon-free communication about costs and charges, underpinned by the Consumer Duty. Any firm building toward a crypto / VASP license in United Kingdom should read this as a preview of the communication standard the regulator now treats as a baseline.

This matters because the UK is developing its own crypto regime rather than importing the EU’s MiCA framework, and consumer-facing clarity is a recurring FCA theme across its rulebook. Firms that already present costs, fees and any interest arrangements in plain English — and that can evidence readability at or below GCSE level — will be better positioned as the FCA extends its clarity expectations across the market.

Concrete next steps and considerations

  • Audit your consumer-facing disclosures now. Test key documents for readability and intelligibility, focusing on sentence length, word complexity, structure and whether a retail reader can grasp the message.
  • Map costs to the total-cost-of-investing concept. Where you both charge fees and pass on or retain interest on client cash, review how transparently this is disclosed against the FCA’s Consumer Duty and 2023 Dear CEO Letter expectations.
  • Prepare for the CCI transition. If any of your activities touch products moving from PRIIPs or UCITS disclosure to CCI, plan changes ahead of the June 2027 deadline rather than treating it as a distant milestone.
  • Engage with the consultation. Firms with a view on the proposed cost-disclosure framework can respond to CP26/24 by 21 August. Even where you are outside the immediate scope, the response process is a useful read on the regulator’s thinking.
  • Treat plain English as a control, not a marketing task. The 6% plain-English finding shows how far current practice sits from the FCA’s expectation; embedding clear-communication review into your compliance function reduces future remediation risk.

For applicants and existing registrants, the practical takeaway is consistency. The FCA is steadily aligning its disclosure expectations across the consumer investment market toward clarity, comparability and demonstrable consumer understanding. Firms that build these disciplines into their onboarding, pricing and promotions processes today will find both authorisation and ongoing supervision smoother as the regime evolves.

Source: Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) — Financial regulator to simplify investment disclosure regime