FCA

The Financial Conduct Authority is the UK’s conduct regulator for financial-services firms — and the dominant regulator across FintechPays’ UK niches. Two FCA rule-sets shape how we cover UK affiliate programs and how UK creators should disclose: the Financial Promotions regime (extended to crypto-assets in October 2023, then again under the finfluencer rule in October 2024) and the Consumer Duty (in force since July 2023). Every UK editorial page on FintechPays renders the FCA-compliant disclosure language above the fold; every UK affiliate-creator should pair affiliate links with the same.

The finfluencer rule matters operationally: an affiliate creator who posts about an unauthorised firm, or who posts about an authorised firm without the proper FCA-approved disclosure language, is committing a criminal offence under FSMA s.21. FintechPays publishes per-niche disclosure templates that meet the rule; reviewers can lift them verbatim. For business-banking programs, the FCA also authorises e-money institutions (EMIs) — Mercury, Tide, Revolut Business and the other neobanks-via-sponsor-bank programs we cover all sit under EMI permissions, not full UK banking licences. We surface the licence type in every review’s trust band because it changes both the deposit-protection answer (FSCS vs. safeguarding) and the kind of business activity the program can legally support.