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The UK’s financial watchdog wants to kill a rule that’s been annoying bankers for years. The Financial Conduct Authority said it plans to dump the seven-day wait before firms can publish research on new stock offerings. The move comes as London struggles to keep companies from listing elsewhere.
The FCA put out a consultation paper—CP26/14—that basically admits the 2018 rules didn’t work. Those rules forced investment banks to give the same information to outside analysts that they gave their own research teams. The idea was to get more independent coverage of IPOs. It backfired. Instead of more research, firms got more headaches, more legal risk, and higher costs. And companies started looking at New York or Amsterdam instead.
Jon Relleen runs infrastructure and exchanges at the FCA. He didn’t mince words. “The market has been clear,” he said. The rules add risk and complexity without delivering what they were supposed to deliver. He wants the UK to stay competitive for raising capital. That means cutting red tape.
What Changes Now
The proposal is pretty straightforward. Scrap the seven-day publication delay. Scrap the requirement to share information equally with connected and unconnected analysts. The FCA thinks this will make IPOs simpler and less risky for everyone involved. Banks won’t have to navigate a maze of compliance checks. Companies won’t worry about information leaks or timing issues.
The rules were supposed to encourage independent research. But they created the opposite effect in practice. Firms found it easier to just avoid publishing research at all during the IPO window. Some banks stopped covering smaller offerings entirely because the compliance burden wasn’t worth it. The FCA now sees this as a mistake that put the UK at a disadvantage compared to other financial centers.
The consultation doesn’t stop there. The FCA is asking whether it should go further and reform other parts of the 2018 IPO rules. The discussion paper includes open-ended questions about what else might need fixing. The regulator seems willing to listen. That’s kind of unusual for a body that’s often criticized for moving slowly.
Deadline and Next Steps
Market participants have until May 29, 2026 to send in comments. The FCA wants feedback from banks, issuers, analysts, and anyone else who deals with IPOs. The consultation is part of commitments the FCA made in a letter to the Prime Minister back in December 2025. That letter promised action to boost the UK’s capital markets. This is the first concrete step.
The timing matters. London has been losing ground to rival financial centers for years. Companies that might have listed in the UK a decade ago now go to New York or even Paris. Brexit didn’t help. Regulatory friction made things worse. The FCA is trying to reverse that trend without abandoning investor protection entirely.
No other rule changes are on the table right now. The FCA is focusing on this specific pain point. That’s probably smart. Trying to overhaul everything at once usually ends badly. Better to fix what’s clearly broken and see how the market reacts.
The 2018 rules were well-intentioned. They came after concerns that connected analysts—the ones employed by the banks running the IPO—had too much influence. Independent analysts were supposed to provide a counterbalance. But the execution created more problems than it solved. Information flow got tangled. Legal departments freaked out about potential violations. Costs went up. Research quality didn’t improve.
What the Market Says
Bankers have been complaining about these rules for years. They say the seven-day delay is arbitrary and serves no real purpose. By the time research can be published, the IPO is already priced and trading. The information is stale. Investors don’t find it useful. And the requirement to share information equally with outside analysts creates logistical nightmares.
Some market participants worry that scrapping the rules will reduce independent research even further. But the FCA seems to think that ship has already sailed. The current rules didn’t produce more independent coverage. They just made the whole process more cumbersome. Getting rid of them probably won’t make things worse.
The consultation paper doesn’t propose a full regulatory overhaul. It’s targeted at specific barriers that market participants have identified. The FCA wants to make the IPO process more efficient without compromising investor protection. That’s a tricky balance. Too much deregulation and you get scandals. Too much regulation and you get no IPOs at all.
The feedback period runs through late May. After that, the FCA will review comments and decide whether to move forward with the changes. If it does, the new rules could be in place by the end of 2026. That would be fast by regulatory standards. But the FCA knows it’s racing against time. Every month London waits is another month companies consider other markets.
The broader strategy here is clear. The UK wants to be a top destination for companies going public. It can’t compete on tax rates or market size with the US. But it can compete on regulatory efficiency. If the FCA can make the IPO process smoother than New York or Frankfurt, that’s a selling point. Whether it’s enough to turn the tide remains unclear.
The FCA’s letter to the Prime Minister in December 2025 outlined several priorities for strengthening UK capital markets. This consultation is the first deliverable from that commitment. More changes are probably coming. But for now, the focus is on IPO research rules and whether they help or hurt the market. The answer seems pretty obvious to most people involved.
Frequently Asked Questions
What IPO research rules is the FCA proposing to eliminate?
The FCA wants to remove the seven-day delay before connected research can be published and the requirement for firms to share the same information with independent analysts as their own research teams.
When is the deadline for submitting feedback on the FCA’s proposal?
Market participants can submit comments on the proposed rule changes until May 29, 2026.
Why did the FCA originally introduce these rules in 2018?
The rules were meant to encourage more independent research coverage of IPOs by ensuring outside analysts received the same information as connected analysts, but they ended up adding complexity and cost instead.
