The FCA is reviewing its rules about financial promotions for consumer credit. It emphasises that promotions must be clear, fair and not misleading and help consumers both understand products and make effective comparisons. 

In July 2023, the FCA's Consumer Duty came into force, aimed at setting a higher standard for consumer protection across retail financial services. Under the Duty, firms' communications, including financial promotions, must support the understanding of retail customers, meet their information needs and equip them to make effective decisions. The FCA asked firms if there were FCA requirements that created duplication or were too complex.  It received feedback that the FCA's financial promotion rules for consumer credit in CONC 3 were overly complex or outdated. Most of the financial promotions rules in the Consumer Credit rule book pre-date the FCA taking over regulation in 2014, with some going back to 2004.

The FCA has therefore launched a review which aims to remove duplicative and outdated requirements, including those that restrict flexibility, or hinder innovation, growth and firms' ability to deliver good outcomes. It explores ways to improve disclosure, by allowing firms more flexibility to tailor customer-facing communications to promote consumer understanding and reflect technological developments in the customer journey. 

It seeks to advance the FCA's ambitions to:

• Address firms' longstanding concerns about the length and complexity of our rules and guidance.
• Identify targeted steps to remove outdated requirements or areas of complexity so that the regime is more outcomes-focused, reducing unnecessary administrative burdens.
• Give firms greater discretion when applying the FCA's requirements to enable them to tailor customer-facing communications in a way which promotes consumer understanding.

The FCA's review consists of two parts:

• A Consultation Paper (CP) on simplifying CONC 3. The FCA has identified areas of overlap with the Duty or where it believes there is unnecessary prescription and is consulting on removing several rules and some guidance.
• A Discussion Paper (DP) on cost disclosure including the Annual Percentage Rate (APR). The FCA is assessing if several provisions in CONC 3.5 covering cost disclosure could be amended to better promote consumer understanding about the cost of credit. Depending on the responses, the FCA will consider whether to consult further on possible policy interventions.

The FCA proposes to remove some areas of CONC 3 which may be unnecessarily prescriptive. Instead, it would rely on firms delivering the Duty's consumer understanding outcome to ensure their communications meet consumers' information needs and are likely to be understood.

In addition, the FCA proposes to make minor amendments to CONC 3.3.1AG to reflect changes made by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act 2024. It is also exploring ways to improve how firms communicate APR and other credit costs to help retail customers better understand and make informed financial decisions in pursuit of their financial objectives.

The consultation ends on 17 June 2026. The FCA will consider feedback to the Consultation Paper and aims to publish the outcome later in the year. It will also consider feedback to the DP and then decide on its next steps. Where it considers that there is a case for making changes to its rules and guidance, it will consult on any proposed changes in the normal way.