FRC launches Innovation and Improvement Hub to drive regulatory innovation and market growth
News types: Policy Statements
Published: 15 September 2025
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) today announced the launch of its Innovation and Improvement Hub, reinforcing its commitment to create an exploratory space for collaborative problem-solving with market participants whilst supporting high standards and economic growth.
The Hub builds on the success of existing initiatives such as the Audit Sandbox and Scalebox programmes, bringing together cross-FRC approaches under one unified framework. It aims to provide stakeholders with increased choice of routes into regulatory support, moving beyond traditional supervisory relationships to foster collaborative conversations on common interests.
The FRC has identified three early priorities for the Hub's work; exploring how artificial intelligence might affect the future of audit, working collaboratively with companies to reduce the length of annual reports and accounts, which have grown significantly in recent years, and deepening cross-regulatory work to ensure there is a joined up approach from the whole ecosystem.
Another initiative launched last week centres around the Scalebox offering dedicated resources to smaller audit firms to help build their capabilities around quality management systems whilst enabling the FRC to learn about proportionate oversight for smaller audit firms in the PIE market.
Richard Moriarty, FRC CEOThere is an important role for regulators to encourage improvement and enable innovation. The Innovation and Improvement Hub demonstrates our commitment to provide a space for industry participants to experiment and discuss issues, so we can drive innovation and support growth across the sector whilst maintaining our focus on quality and market resilience."
The Hub's broader innovation agenda complements the FRC's recent work to reduce reporting requirements, including the updated UK Stewardship Code 2026 which introduced fewer principles for asset managers and more flexible reporting structures, alongside ongoing efforts to help auditors deliver more proportionate audits for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Listen to the latest ‘In Conversation’ podcast episode in which Kate O’Neill, Director of Stakeholder Engagement and Corporate Affairs, discusses the initiative with Richard Moriarty, CEO and Miranda Craig, Director of Strategy and Change.