On 18 September 2020, the UK regulatory authorities (HM Treasury, Bank of England, PRA, FCA, Payment Systems Regulator, Competition and Markets Authority, the Pensions Regulator and the Information Commissioners Office) published an updated version of the Financial Services Regulatory Initiatives Grid.

This edition of the Grid contains 111 initiatives, an increase on the 85 that were set out in the first edition published in May 2020. That increase is partly due to the inclusion of initiatives from the Information Commissioner’s Office and The Pensions Regulator and feedback from stakeholders that they would like the Grid to be as comprehensive as practicable. It also reflects the expanded horizon of the Grid, which now covers a two-year horizon. In addition, given the number of initiatives paused or delayed over the past few months, fewer initiatives have fallen out of the Grid (by virtue of completion) than might typically be expected.

The Grid sets out that for a number of ‘paused’ initiatives, the UK regulators are still considering how to resume. Timings across many initiatives remain ‘tentative’ and all initiatives are under continuous close-review in light of the external environment facing the financial services sector and economy as a whole.

The Grid also includes several long-running, and critically important, initiatives. These include the phase out of LIBOR, increased margining of OTC derivative contracts, achieving resolvability, and strengthening operational resilience across a number of sectors. In addition, consultations will be undertaken on the UK implementation of Basel 3.1 during 2021.