FinregE Unveils New Blueprint to Solve FCA PS26/15 Transaction Reporting Challenges

FinregE has issued new research challenging the financial services industry to rethink its approach to the Financial Conduct Authority’s PS26/15 mandate. For fintech professionals, the findings suggest that the regulator's attempt to simplify transaction reporting may inadvertently trigger operational instability for firms relying on fragile legacy data architectures and undocumented manual processes.

What was announced

The research from London-based regulatory intelligence firm FinregE addresses the implementation of PS26/15, a policy statement from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) designed to streamline transaction reporting. While the regulator aims to reduce the compliance burden by removing specific data fields and improving overall data quality, FinregE argues that this "simplification" presents a paradox for many institutions. The core of the issue lies in "organisational archaeology" - the difficult process of identifying where data originates within legacy systems before it can be safely removed or altered.

FinregE warns of "silent failures," where subtle inaccuracies in reporting logic evade system alarms but eventually draw regulatory scrutiny. The research highlights that many institutions lack formal manuals for their data mapping, instead relying on the "tribal knowledge" of long-serving staff or undocumented Excel macros. To mitigate these risks, the report proposes a shift toward a centralised logic layer, or a "digital twin" of regulatory obligations. This approach, facilitated by the FinregE Regulatory OS (End-to-End Regulatory Operating System), aims to decouple regulatory logic from underlying IT code. This allows firms to perform instantaneous impact analyses and adjust to mandate changes across the enterprise without the need for manual database interventions or extensive code rewrites.

"The true burden of compliance is not the number of fields the FCA requires, but the fragility of the systems used to populate them. If a firm finds it difficult to remove three fields from a report, it is a diagnostic signal that their entire reporting architecture is too rigid. We are proposing that PS26/15 be viewed not as a routine IT chore, but as a strategic invitation to fix the plumbing of the institution."

Rohini Gupta, CEO of FinregE and author of the research.

The companies involved

FinregE is a London-based RegTech company specialising in regulatory intelligence and compliance automation. The firm provides an End-to-End Regulatory Operating System designed to help financial institutions navigate complex global mandates by replacing static documentation with dynamic, machine-readable logic. Led by CEO Rohini Gupta and Chief Marketing & Communications Officer Paul Lyon, the company positions itself as a bridge between shifting legislative requirements and the technical realities of banking infrastructure.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is the conduct regulator for nearly 50,000 financial services firms and financial markets in the UK. As an independent public body, it possesses significant powers to set standards and enforce rules, such as those outlined in PS26/15. The FCA’s move to streamline reporting is part of a broader trend among global regulators to prioritise data quality over sheer volume. Also relevant to the broader credit and data ecosystem is Moody’s Corporation, a global integrated risk assessment firm that provides credit ratings, software, and analytical tools, though it remains a separate entity from the regulatory bodies and RegTech providers directly managing the PS26/15 transition.

What this means

This announcement highlights a growing tension in the industry: as regulators attempt to become more agile and data-driven, the technical debt of the banking sector becomes a primary bottleneck. The shift toward "leaner" reporting regimes actually puts more pressure on compliance departments that have historically relied on manual workarounds. If a reduction in data fields leads to system failures, it suggests that the industry's current "patch-and-mend" approach to IT is reaching its breaking point. The move toward a "logic layer" approach is no longer just an efficiency play; it is becoming a requirement for operational resilience. Firms that fail to decouple their regulatory logic from legacy code may find themselves unable to keep pace with the FCA’s increasingly dynamic reporting expectations.