Prudential regulation

Prudential regulation rules require financial firms to hold sufficient capital and have adequate risk controls in place. Close supervision of firms ensures that we have a comprehensive overview of their activities so that we can step in if they are not being run in a safe and sound way or, in the case of insurers, if they are not protecting policyholders adequately.

The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) at the Bank of England is responsible for this prudential regulation and supervision of around 1,500 banks, building societies, credit unions, insurers and major investment firms.

Find out more about what the PRA does

Latest news and publications

24 October 2019: Sam Woods, Deputy Governor for Prudential Regulation, and CEO of the PRA, gave a speech ‘Credit union meets robot’ at Mansion House, London. Alongside the speech, we published CP28/19 ‘Credit unions: Review of the capital regime’, responses to which are requested by Friday 24 January 2020.

17 October 2019: We, HM Treasury, and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between HM Treasury, the Bank of England (Bank), Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and FCA. This sets out how the parties to the MoU expect to coordinate their respective functions in relation to equivalence and exemption determinations. These are new functions that will be transferred to UK authorities in the context of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union and will come into effect from exit day.

This Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is established in accordance with regulation 6 of the Equivalence Determinations for Financial Services and Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. 

16 October 2019: The Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority published a joint report on ‘Machine learning in UK financial services’.

PRA publications

Consultations papers, policy statements, supervisory statements and statements of policy can be viewed individually by following the links below. Policy statements are published on the same page as the accompanying consultation paper. 

• Consultation papers and Policy statements
• Supervisory statements
• Statements of policy
• Prudential regulation news releases and speeches
• Annual Report and Business Plan
• Statements and reports
• Letters
• PRA Regulatory Digest