FCA publishes its final rules on PISCES and the sandbox opens
10 Jun 2025
2 min read
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On 10 June 2025, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published its final rules for the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES). These rules relate to the PISCES sandbox arrangements, which also opened on 10 June 2025 and will run for five years.
The publication of the rules follows the FCA’s consultation on the regulatory framework for PISCES in December 2024 (CP24/29) and their interim statement which was released in April 2025 and these rules have been made pursuant to Regulation 14 of The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System Sandbox) Regulations 2025 (which came into force on 5 June 2025).
The rules affect and are relevant to a number of interested parties, including:
- platform operators intending to apply to participate in the PISCES sandbox;
- regulated trading intermediaries intending to place investor buy or sell orders in the PISCES sandbox;
- investors in private companies intending to participate in the PISCES sandbox;
- private companies intending to use PISCES as the rules for PISCES operators affect the information these companies will need to disclose to investors; and
- professional advisors to all the groups above.
Note: the FCA only expects to start charging PISCES operators annual periodic fees from 2026 / 2027 and the FCA will consult on its suggested approach in their annual policy Consultation Paper in November 2025.
If you would like to discuss any of the points raised in this update, please contact AJ Venter (Partner, Corporate and M&A), Guy Francis (Director, Corporate and M&A) or Charlotte Hamilton (Senior Associate, Corporate and M&A).
We want our rules to strike the right balance between incentivising operator, company and investor participation with appropriate protections for a private-plus market.