The FCA will review its promotion rules for high-risk investments. Here is how uneven they are today
The FCA will review its promotion rules for high-risk investments. Set side by side, the rules for CFDs and crypto already differ.
On 16 October 2026 the FCA published FS26/3, its feedback on the discussion paper about expanding consumer access to investments. FCA, FS26/3.
Most of it is about helping more people invest. One line matters most to anyone who markets a high-risk product: the FCA “will review our financial promotion rules for high-risk investments and if these rules treat products with similar risks in a consistent way.”
It also plans to consult in early 2027 on risk information for mainstream investments, with consumer testing behind it. Regulation Tomorrow. Respondents told the FCA that warnings can overemphasise the downside, and that warnings repeated too often stop working.
No rule has changed. But the review question, whether similar risks get similar treatment, can be answered from the Handbook today.
The same advert, three rulebooks
Take one banner: “Start trading from £100. Download the app.” Run it for three products and the rules differ at almost every step.
| CFD | Qualifying cryptoasset | Peer-to-peer loan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where the rules sit | COBS 22.5 | COBS 4.12A | COBS 4.12A |
| Risk warning | Standardised wording with the firm’s own percentage of retail accounts that lose money (COBS 22.5.6R–7R) | Prescribed: “Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest…” with a “Take 2 mins to learn more” link on digital media (COBS 4.12A.11R) | Prescribed wording for the product type, with the same link (COBS 4.12A.11R) |
| Incentives to invest | Banned, monetary and non-monetary (COBS 22.5.20R) | Banned (COBS 4.12A.7R) | Banned (COBS 4.12A.7R) |
| Before a first investment from a direct offer | Appropriateness assessment; no cooling-off period | 24-hour cooling-off, personalised risk warning, client categorisation and appropriateness (COBS 4.12A.15R–28R) | The same four steps |
| Format of the warning | Prominent, with rules on character-limited media (COBS 22.5.6R) | Own border, bold and underlined where written (COBS 4.12A.36R) | The same as crypto |
A client who can lose all their money in a peer-to-peer loan waits 24 hours before their first investment. A client who can lose their money faster, through leverage in a CFD, does not. The CFD warning tells them how many people lose; the crypto warning tells them they could lose everything. Each rule had its own history and its own reason. The review asks whether the result still makes sense together.
Our angle: map promotions by rule, not by product
Most firms that sell more than one high-risk product keep a checklist per product. When a rule changes, someone updates each checklist by hand, and the CFD team and the crypto team find out at different times.
The review makes that approach expensive. If the FCA aligns warnings, incentives or onboarding steps across products, the change will touch every checklist at once. A firm that has already broken its promotions down by rule (which warning applies, which incentive ban, which steps before a first investment) can see in a day which live promotions a new rule touches.
That is how we built Connor Financial Promotions. A scan reads only the rules that apply: the promoting company’s home rules, each market it targets and the products the promotion names. Each rule records an outcome, so when a rule changes the firm can see which approved promotions relied on it.
What to do before the consultation
- List your high-risk products and the rulebook each sits under. CFDs, spread bets and rolling spot forex under COBS 22.5; crypto and other restricted mass market investments under COBS 4.12A; non-mass market investments under COBS 4.12B.
- Note where your promotions differ only because the rules differ. Those are the places a consistency review is most likely to land.
- Collect evidence on your warnings. If your testing shows a warning is or is not understood, that is exactly what the early 2027 consultation will ask for.
- Watch for the consultation. The FCA has not given a date for the high-risk review itself.
This is analysis of a published feedback statement, not legal advice.
For the rules in full, with each provision quoted and linked, see financial promotions: the UK rules explained.
Frequently asked questions
What is FS26/3?
The FCA’s feedback statement on its discussion paper DP25/3, Expanding consumer access to investments, published on 16 October 2026. It summarises responses and sets out next steps, including a review of the financial promotion rules for high-risk investments.
Has the FCA proposed new promotion rules yet?
No. FS26/3 commits to a review and to a consultation on risk information for mainstream investments in early 2027. Any change to the high-risk promotion rules would come through a later consultation.
Which products does this affect?
FS26/3 is aimed at firms that operate retail investing and trading platforms and firms that sell fractional investments, speculative products such as CFDs, leveraged exchange-traded products, margin lending and structured products, peer-to-peer loans and qualifying cryptoassets.
James Zhao
Co-founder, ConnorJames is a co-founder of Connor. After a corporate career at Barclays and KPMG as a software engineer, he built and exited his own software company. He has spent the last three years at the forefront of AI, and the most recent of them building AI-native products and the agent platform behind Connor.
Kashif Rafiq
Co-founder, ConnorKashif is a co-founder of Connor. He spent his career inside two of the most heavily monitored industries there are, investment banking at Goldman Sachs and energy at BP, working on the security and technology systems that keep regulated communications and data under control. He now builds Connor, which checks financial promotions against the rules that apply to them.
Financial Promotions
Financial Promotions
Financial Promotions