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United Kingdom · Non-EU

Prudential Regulation Authority

PRA · Banking regulatorActive

77Activity Indexmethodology →

Employees

1,527

· budgeted FTE, year-end

FY2025/26

Annual budget

£336.4m (~€394.8m)

· annual funding requirement

FY2025/26

Supervised entities

1,292

· firms and groups supervised

FY2025/26

Overview

The Prudential Regulation Authority is the UK's prudential supervisor for banks, building societies, credit unions, insurers and major investment firms, operating as a committee-governed body inside the Bank of England and funded entirely by fees on the firms it regulates. In 2025/26 it finalised the UK's implementation of the Basel 3.1 standards and the "Strong and Simple" capital regime for small domestic deposit takers, both taking effect from January 2027. It determined 100% of Senior Managers Regime cases inside its three-month service standard while cutting the median decision time to 36 days, and authorised eight new firms across banking and insurance. Everything below is the PRA's own data, from its 2025/26 Annual Report and associated Bank of England publications.

Regulated sectors

BanksInsurance companiesInvestment firms

Leadership

  • Andrew BaileyGovernor of the Bank of England; Chair of the Prudential Regulation Committee · since 2020
  • Katharine Braddick CBDeputy Governor, Prudential Regulation; Chief Executive of the PRA · since 2026
  • Rebecca JacksonExecutive Director, Authorisations, RegTech and International Supervision

Full board →

Figures as published by Prudential Regulation Authority for FY2025/26. Source: PRA Annual Report 2025/26 (Published 25 June 2026; covers 1 March 2025 to 28 February 2026). Data as of 28 February 2026. Supplementary: PRA Business Plan 2026/27.

Organisation (FY2025/26)

ItemValue
Staff
1,527
Budgeted FTE at year-end. Whole-PRA basis, not supervision-only. The PRA sits inside the Bank of England and draws on shared Bank services
Staff change in year
−55 FTE (−4%)
Budgeted headcount reduction during 2025/26
Budgeted headcount 2026/27
1,385 FTE
Forward figure, published in the 2026/27 Business Plan
Enforcement resource
28 FTE
Staff in the Bank's Enforcement and Litigation Division working on enforcement of PRA statutory powers; 30 in 2024/25
Annual funding requirement
£336.4m (~€394.8m)
AFR — fee-funded budget. Not total funding requirement and not outturn
Total funding requirement
£350.2m (~€411.0m)
TFR = AFR plus other fees to industry

Supervised population (FY2025/26)

ItemValue
Firms supervised
1,292 firms and groups
PRA-authorised population — 708 deposit-takers (banks, building societies, credit unions, designated investment firms) + 584 insurers
New firms authorised
8
Seven insurers and one bank; against five insurers and five banks in 2024/25
Cumulative authorisations since 2013
67 insurers · 81 banks and credit unions
Of the 81, 40 are de novo UK banks

Licensing and permissions (FY2025/26)

ItemValue
Senior Management Function approvals
1,250
SM&CR service standard
100% within 3 months
84% met the proposed two-month standard across the year, rising to 98% in the final quarter
Median SM&CR decision time
36 days
Down from 61 days in 2024/25; 28 days in the final quarter
Part 4A variations and cancellations
233
Waivers, modifications and model permissions
939
Waivers and modifications of PRA rules, plus permissions on models, capital exposures and other issues
Change of control approvals
69
Matching Adjustment applications
12 reviews · 11 readiness assessments
Five reviews went through the streamlined channel at an average 2.5 months to decision; the remainder averaged just under 4.5 months
MAIA applications
2 received · 2 granted
Matching Adjustment Investment Accelerator, launched October 2025

Crypto / MiCA

ItemValue
MiCA scope
Not applicable — UK is outside MiCA
PRA cryptoasset work in the year was contribution to the Basel Committee review of the prudential treatment of cryptoasset exposures and monitoring of deposit-taker innovation in deposits, e-money and stablecoins

Notable 2025/26

ItemValue
Basel 3.1 finalised
Finalised the UK's Basel 3.1 package in January 2026
Internal model approach for market risk deferred a further year to January 2028 to allow coordination with other jurisdictions
Strong and Simple regime
~80% of eligible firms already using it during 2025/26
Before the simplified capital rules take effect
Life Insurance Stress Test
Published individual firm results for the first time (Nov 2025)
Future Banking Data programme
37 underused or duplicative banking reporting templates deleted
IRB model commitment
Review within 6 months · final decisions within 18 months
From January 2026; named account managers for first-time applicants
Third-country critical-third-party MoU
PRA + BoE + FCA signed with ESAs (Jan 2026)

Key legislation

  • Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (as amended)

    Foundational Act — PRA statutory objectives and authorisation regime

  • Financial Services and Markets Act 2023

    Post-Brexit rewrite; secondary competitiveness and growth objective

  • Bank of England Act 1998 (Part 1A)

    PRA established as part of the Bank of England

  • Basel 3.1 (UK implementation, January 2026)

    Capital framework for banks and investment firms; market-risk IMA deferred to Jan 2028

Public registers

Application portals

Recent publications

Data as of 28 February 2026 · Source: www.bankofengland.co.uk + ComplyBridge researchActivity Index methodology →

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