The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has finalised reforms to the UK's transaction reporting regime that it said will reduce compliance costs for financial firms by more than £108m a year while still maintaining the high-quality data needed to detect market abuse and supervise markets.

According to the market regulator, the changes will reduce the number of transaction reporting fields from 65 to 52, remove reporting requirements for foreign exchange derivatives and eliminate reporting for around seven million financial instruments traded only on EU venues, including certain equities, bonds and derivatives.

The FCA estimates the latter change alone will save firms around £32m annually. It will also shorten the period for correcting historical reporting errors from five years to three years, which is expected to reduce the number of resubmitted reports by around a third.

The regulator said the reforms will lower the annual cost of MiFID transaction reporting to industry from £493m to around £385m, while ensuring it continues to receive the data needed to monitor markets, detect financial crime and investigate market abuse.

It will also continue working with the Bank of England and HM Treasury to further harmonise transaction and post-trade reporting requirements.

Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: "Transaction reports are the backbone of our market oversight work – they help us catch financial crime, monitor market stability and supervise firms effectively. By taking a smarter, streamlined approach to reporting, we're giving firms meaningful cost relief while ensuring we continue to receive the accurate, high-quality data that keeps UK markets clean and competitive."

The new rules will take effect on 3 April 2028, giving firms time to update their reporting systems, although the FCA said it will adopt a flexible supervisory approach for firms able to implement some of the changes earlier.

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