The Bank of England (BoE) has published a new webpage on the national payments vision and the vision engagement group (VEG) of sector representatives supporting delivery of the vision. The webpage on the national payments...more
The OTC Derivatives Risk Mitigation and Central Counterparties (Equivalence) (Switzerland) Regulations 2025 have been laid before Parliament and published with an explanatory memorandum. The Regulations, made on 16 July,...more
- What is new: HM Treasury and the UK regulators announced a package of financial services reforms on 15 July 2025, including cross-cutting reforms in the regulatory environment, significant changes to the SMCR regime, a...more
The Bank Resolution (Recapitalisation) Act 2025 (Act) received Royal asset on 15 May 2025. Although deceptively short and dependant on the passing of further regulations in order to come into effect, it introduces significant...more
The UK Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has published its annual plan and budget for 2025/26. The foreword by Aidene Walsh, Chair of the PSR, references the government's announcement to incorporate the PSR into the FCA and...more
On 8 April, the Bank of England (BoE) has published its response to the discussion paper on reviewing access to Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) accounts for settlement. In the discussion paper, initially published on 8...more
The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced details of the launch of the procurement process for the pilot digital gilt instrument (DIGIT) issuance. The pilot aims to: (i) enable the government to explore how distributed...more
We love a “to do” list! So, following a flurry of announcements from the FCA and publication of the Treasury’s Action Plan aimed at overhauling the current regulatory landscape, what is on the financial regulators’ “to do”...more
On November 14, 2024, the UK government unveiled its National Payments Vision (the Vision), a strategy designed to reshape the UK’s payments ecosystem. This Vision responds to the findings of the 2023 Future of Payments...more
The FCA, PRA, and Bank of England have published their finalised critical third party (CTP) rules (and accompanying guidance) in PS24/16 Operational resilience: Critical third parties to the UK financial sector....more
The Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority have published a joint policy statement on operational resilience for critical third parties (CTPs) in the U.K. financial sector, which includes their final...more
The new regime will take effect on 1 January 2025, but will not diminish the responsibilities of financial services firms relying on the services of critical third parties....more
The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 established a framework for the regulation of third parties who provide significant services to financial institutions, giving HM Treasury power to designate an entity as a...more
Amongst the broad range of updates this week, at international level, the FSB published its thematic peer review on MMF Reforms and the BCBS published the outcomes of its meeting held on 28 and 29 February, including that it...more
In this alert we consider various reforms and proposals to the banking sector announced by UK regulators. On 11 January 2024, HM Treasury published a consultation paper on enhancing the UK’s Special Resolution Regime for...more
The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Digital Securities Sandbox) Regulations 2023 came into force on Jan. 8, creating the U.K.'s first digital securities sandbox within which firms would be able to test new...more
As part of measures introduced under the Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA) 2023, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England (BoE) have published consultations relating, respectively, to maintaining...more
Regulated financial services institutions and financial market infrastructure (FMI) providers often rely on third parties who provide significant services to them behind the scenes, including “cloud” services and IT services...more
HM Treasury has launched a consultation that sets out proposals for enhancing the Special Resolution Regime by introducing a new means for the Bank of England, as the U.K. resolution authority, to use stabilization powers to...more
Following feedback to their July discussion paper, the U.K. regulators—the Bank of England, Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority—have launched a joint consultation proposing rules and regulatory...more
The eagerly awaited seventh edition of the Financial Services Regulatory Initiatives Grid was published on 30 November 2023 by the Financial Services Regulatory Initiatives Forum. The Regulatory Initiatives Grid sets out the...more
On 6 November 2023, the Bank of England (the UK’s central bank) issued a discussion paper on the regulation on stablecoins, alongside another paper by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) (DP23/4) and a “Dear CEO” letter...more
The proposals would give the Bank of England wide-ranging powers to deal with acute failure scenarios, treating policyholder liabilities as loss-absorbing. HM Treasury (HMT) is proposing1 a new UK resolution regime for...more
HM Treasury has published the response to its July 2022 consultation and call for evidence on payments regulation and the systemic perimeter. HMT proposes the following next steps: extend the scope of the Bank of England’s...more
The U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority have issued a joint consultation paper on proposals to amend the U.K. Binding Technical Standards on margin requirements for non-centrally cleared...more