The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has approved five firms to provide company announcements to the UK market, following a shake-up of the business in which the London Stock Exchange's Regulatory News Service (RNS) was stripped of its monopoly.

The FSA said that BusinessWire Regulatory Disclosure, Newslink Financial, PimsWire and PR Newswire, together with RNS, will act as so-called primary information providers. They will be responsible for disseminating price-sensitive announcements, such as results, takeover news and directors' share deals. These announcements will be fed to so-called secondary information providers, which include companies like Reuters and Thomson Financial, who will publish the information for investors.