Following consultation feedback, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is today confirming that it is recognising the following voluntary market codes of best practice under its codes recognition scheme:

• FX Global Code – maintained and updated by the Global Foreign Exchange Committee, this Code sets global principles of good practice standards in the foreign exchange (FX) market, promoting the integrity and effective functioning of the wholesale FX market.
• UK Money Markets Code (MM) – maintained and updated by the Money Markets Committee, this sets standards and best practice expected from participants in the deposit, repo and securities lending markets in the United Kingdom.

Both these codes have been written and are owned by the industry and reflect their views of best practice.

The FCA established its codes recognition scheme last year for recognising industry codes for unregulated financial markets and activities. The FX and MM Codes are the first codes to be recognised by the FCA.  

Individuals subject to the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR) need to meet the requirements for market conduct, for both regulated and unregulated activities.  Behaviour that is in line with an FCA recognised code, such as the FX and MM Codes, will tend to indicate a person subject to the SM&CR is meeting their obligation to observe ‘proper standards of market conduct’. 

The FCA consulted on recognition of the codes in December 2018. The consultation responses all agreed that they met the recognition criteria and that the FCA should recognise both.