The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has said that it will remove “unnecessary” data reporting for 16,000 UK firms.

The regulator said that it has identified three regular returns as viable for decommissioning, which are: Form G: The Retail Investment Adviser Complaints Notifications Form; FSA039: Client Money and Assets; and Section F RMAR.

Those impacted by the changes include insurance, mortgage and retail investment intermediaries; MIFIDPRU investment firms; securities and futures firms; investment management firms; collective portfolio management firms; and peer-to-peer lenders.

The FCA said that the three collections identified will also be removed from the firm handbook, in a bid to further simplify its reporting requirements.

"In our strategy, we committed to being a smarter regulator and supporting growth,” said Jessica Rusu, chief data, intelligence and information officer, FCA. “So while we need data to do our job, we should challenge ourselves on whether what we’re asking for is needed.
“We’re getting rid of these data requests, saving time and money for thousands of firms, and we will review more in the future.”

The move comes after the UK watchdog recently launched My FCA, a new portal providing firms with a single sign-in and all regulatory tasks in one place.

Firms previously needed to sign into three different systems to complete their reporting duties.

The regulator said that the portal will make it easier to fulfil regulatory responsibilities while improving user experience.

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