On 5 February 2018, AIMA and the Investment Association (IA) submitted a joint response to the FCA’s Consultation Paper 17/37 on Industry Codes of Conduct and Discussion Paper on FCA Principle 5. The FCA’s proposals are seeking to create certainty around the process for the regulator to publicly recognise industry codes of conduct, and to encourage market participants to adhere to them. Our joint response raises a number of recommendations to make the proposals workable in practice, including: introducing a second lightweight layer of consultation by the FCA on any codes to be approved; the FCA to state explicitly that the intention of recognising codes is not simply to enhance the FCA’s enforcement powers; the FCA to consider the extra-territorial impact of any approved code; a commitment by the FCA to set a timetable to provide feedback to an authoring body and approve any proposed code; and to ensure that authoring bodies are not required to maintain registers of adherence or regulate compliance by industry participants. The response also indicates that, while AIMA and the IA are not opposed to the extension of PRIN 5 to unregulated activities, we see little benefit without accompanying resources to conduct relevant supervision. If members have any questions, please contact Adele Rentsch.