On 18 May 2026, HM Treasury issued a policy paper, ‘Safeguarding Stability, Enabling Growth: The Ring-Fencing Review’.
Background
At last year’s Mansion House the Chancellor confirmed the government would uphold ring-fencing and undertake a review (the Review) to identify meaningful reform to support growth.
Proposed reforms
Following the Review, the government has announced
On 18 May 2026, the Bank of England (BoE) published a consultation paper, Extending RTGS and CHAPS settlement hours – next steps towards near 24×7 settlement.
Background
The BoE has publicly stated its ambition to move towards near 24×7 RTGS and CHAPS settlement around the turn of the decade, following a phased
On 15 May 2026, the Bank of England (BoE), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and HM Treasury (HMT) (the Regulators) published a joint statement on frontier AI models and cyber resilience.
Summary
The Regulators consider that AI continues to evolve rapidly and that, in particular, frontier AI models represent
On 8 May 2026, the Australian Securities and Investments Commissions (ASIC) issued an open letter to industry calling on all licensees and market participants to urgently strengthen their cyber resilience measures, as frontier artificial intelligence (AI) intensifies the global cyber risk environment.
The letter emphasises the need for urgent, focused action
On 15 May 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published the results of its multi-firm review of UK-registered credit rating agencies (CRAs) which focused on surveillance processes, credit rating methodologies and internal controls.
Background
In the review the FCA sought to understand how CRAs maintain robust arrangements for ratings surveillance, consistent
On 14 May 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced that it was re-opening its AI Input Zone.
The FCA is reopening the AI Input Zone to gather views from different market participants to understand what stakeholders feel ‘good’ looks like in terms of safe and responsible AI development, and what can
On 14 May 2026, HM Treasury (HMT) announced an independent review (the Review) into access to banking services and published terms of reference (TORs) for this review.
Background
HMT highlights in the TORs that while access to cash is protected by legislation and the Financial Conduct Authority has responsibility and
On 14 May 2026, HM Treasury (HMT) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced plans to reform the UK Money Market Fund (MMF) Regulations.
Summary
HMT and the FCA set out in the announcement that they consider that recent periods of market stress have highlighted the need to strengthen
On 12 May 2026, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) updated its Manual on pre-trade and post-trade transparency under MiFID II/MiFIR.
On pages 12 to 21 of the Manual ESMA sets out a table setting out the updates that it has made to the Manual.
The updates include a new paragraph
On 13 May 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a press release announcing that it will review how consumer investment firms support bereaved customers.
Research prepared for the FCA reports that only 47% of bereaved customers felt they received the support needed from financial firms, and so has launched its review to