The organisation has this morning proposed to ditch the quartet of Handbook demands as it carries out a wider review of communication with consumers.

Costs for firms will not rise ‘significantly’ as a result, the FCA said.

The FCA put forward plans to amend the following rules and guidance:

• The Consumer-Friendly Principles and Practices of Financial Management
• Short report
• The Initial Disclosure Document/Combined Initial Disclosure Document
• Services and Costs Disclosure Document.

The FCA report stated: “We expect that the proposed changes set out in this consultation paper will impose no significant increase in costs for affected firms, as we will be removing current disclosure requirements or the optional use of templates.

“Evidence shows that these disclosures are not as effective as initially envisaged in terms of providing appropriate information to consumers, so we expect that removing these disclosures will have no significant impact on consumers. Indeed, this information will be still available for consumers from alternative sources.”

Christopher Woolard, director of strategy and competition at the FCA, said: “We would like to see firms changing the way they interact with their customers. We have been encouraged to see a number of firms are already doing this.

“Today’s announcement reflects our commitment to sustainable regulation and addresses disclosures that are not working for consumers, giving firms the freedom to communicate with their customers in a more flexible and open way.”

The consultation will close on 18 December 2015.

The FCA is now reviewing the feedback received on the Smarter Consumer Communications discussion paper and will consider whether further changes can be made to improve customer outcomes.

This was launched in June 2015, with the aim to get firms to think about how they can improve their communications to help consumers make more effective decisions about their finances.