IPO tweaks are welcome, but London’s market needs root and branch reform
The FCA’s recent IPO reforms are welcome tweaks, but London needs bolder action to win the listings race, writes Samantha Myers
When the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) opened a consultation in April on rules introduced in 2018, which introduced a seven-day connected research waiting period and information-sharing requirements, almost all seemed to agree: reform was needed.
The consultation respondents were near unanimous in their support for change. Their concerns essentially built on a Treasury Investment Research Review led by Rachel Kent in 2023, which found that the 2018 regime had increased market risk and put London at a competitive disadvantage compared to overseas venues.
London cannot currently afford to carry the weight of that disadvantage and what competitors are doing matters. As the FCA itself noted, European venues are routinely able to price deals in nine and 12 days from announcing their intention to float. In the UK, by contrast, the 2018 rules lengthened the IPO timetable meaning that matching European timetables was simply unachievable under the old regime. With just two listings in the first quarter of 2026 and fundraising slumping to a 30-year low in the first half of 2025, change is needed.
The reforms remove the seven day wait, directly reducing the window of execution risk during which market conditions can shift against a company, which is a material concern in volatile markets and particularly at a time of geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty.
But that’s not all, the FCA has made the listing process a little less complex by also removing the imposed equal information-sharing requirements on syndicate banks. Rather than encouraging independent research, this measure had the twin effect of adding compliance costs and increasing the administrative burden on those seeking to list in London whilst offering up no tangible benefit.
Crucially, welcome though they are, the significance of the announcement extends beyond just the detail of the reforms. More important is the demonstration that the FCA is serious about supporting growth and competitiveness as a core part of its mandate. In short, sage reform has been served up, with the prospect of more to come.
Bolder action still needed
Of course, there is still more to do. The latest reforms help the UK make up lost ground, but they alone don’t push the UK ahead of the competition from New York, Amsterdam and other venues that continue to attract high-profile listings. Indeed, serious questions remain, not least about how the UK addresses the structural factors that drive companies to list elsewhere – be it deeper pools of specialist capital, higher valuations, greater analyst coverage post-IPO and a broader institutional investor base.
The FCA has signalled it will consider further reforms to the remaining 2018 IPO information flow rules, but the market needs more than a drip-feed of technical amendments if London is to reclaim its position as a first-choice – and competitive – listing venue. Fixing a burdensome rule here or an unhelpful regulation there will not be enough; the market needs root-and-branch reform.
Yet, there are reasons to be optimistic. After all, the consultation on the 2018 rules was announced in April of this year, with the reforms being announced within a matter of weeks, taking immediate effect in August. For all the talk of regulatory inertia, the FCA has moved with impressive speed. This matters: when it comes to talk of international competitiveness, it helps to have an agile regulator in your corner.
But when faced with the manifold challenges that lie before the UK’s capital markets, it now needs to act boldly, too. If it, with policymakers, can help to address the array of challenges suppressing IPOs in one sweep, it could yet push the UK ahead of the pack.
Samantha Myers is a partner at Reed Smith