PRA to streamline supervision as part of 2026 priorities

Written by Adam Cadle

15/01/2026

The UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has today published its supervisory priorities for 2026, outlining in a letter its sector-specific aims for all insurers, building societies and banks.

These include important plans to streamline the supervisory process by moving some supervisory activity, including periodic summary meetings (PSMs), to a two-year cycle.

These meetings are an internal, formal review led by the PRA to consider potential risks posed by a regulated firm to the PRA’s objectives, and to set the supervisory strategy for the coming period. Over recent years, the PRA has transitioned some firms to biennial review cycles, reflecting the longer-term nature of supervisory workplans and allowing firms and supervisors to focus resources more efficiently on identifying and remediating key risks.

From 1 March larger firms will begin to move to this two-year cycle, while maintaining a regular cadence for discussion of important matters, alongside ad hoc supervisory meetings. This will result in firms having a more proportionate and efficient set of engagements with the PRA.

Other streamlining measures include: Accelerating timelines for reviewing senior manager applications, new firm authorisations and internal ratings-based model change pre-approval applications; developing the new UK captive regime for insurers, through a summer 2026 consultation with a view to launch the new regime in 2027; and streamlining and modernising reporting requirements through the Future Banking Data project.

Sam Woods, deputy governor for prudential regulation and CEO of the PRA, said: “As we set out our priorities for 2026, we are also updating our approach by moving from an annual to a two-year supervisory cycle for firms. This will allow us to make our operations more efficient and help streamline firms’ interactions with the PRA.”

Related Articles