The PISCES Regulations 2025
22 May 2025
The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System Sandbox) Regulations 2025 have been published and laid before Parliament.
PISCES is a new type of regulated trading platform that allows private companies to trade their securities in a controlled environment and on an intermittent basis. PISCES incorporates elements of both public and private markets and is billed as a core part of the broader UK capital markets reform agenda. It aims to allow private companies to scale-up and grow and support the pipeline of future IPOs by bridging the gap between private and public markets.
The Regulations establish the legal framework for the PISCES sandbox and, together with FCA rules, which are expected in June 2025, will set the regulatory requirements for PISCES.
The sandbox environment allows the government and the FCA to test and refine the PISCES model – given its innovative nature - ensuring that the detailed regulatory requirements for PISCES are suitably calibrated. Whilst the sandbox period is set to five years (until 5 June 2030) there is optionality to extend the sandbox or, alternatively, to make the sandbox arrangements permanent at an earlier stage, subject to Parliamentary approval.
For an overview of the key features of the PISCES model, please see here.
