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On 30 September 2021, the FCA published a Dear CEO letter targeted at wealth management and stockbroking firms. The letter provides insight into the regulator's view of the key harms facing the sector and renews its expectations of firms.

The Dear CEO letter covers the following topics:

• Culture (including diversity and inclusion)
• Financial resilience and disorderly firm failure.
• Market abuse, fraud and investment scams
• Costs and charges

On financial resilience, the FCA reminded firms to:

• have regard to FG 20/1;
• proactively monitor capital and liquidity; and to
• notify the FCA of shortfalls early.

On wind-down planning, the FCA reminded firms to:

• have regard to its Wind Down Planning Guide ("WDPG")
• ensure their plan is credible;
• establish realistic timeframes and cost estimates; and
• implement appropriate triggers that are monitored.

On financial crime, the FCA directed firms to:

• maintain robust systems and controls; and
• to promote the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) to retail customers.

On costs and charges, the FCA set its expectation of seeing firms monitor how they meet ex-ante (forecast) and ex-post (after the fact) disclosure requirements set by MiFID II - see COBS 6.1ZA.