On 3 December 2020, the Bank of England (BoE) published its latest Annual Report regarding the supervision of financial market infrastructures (FMIs).

Over the past year, the supervision of FMIs has played an important part in advancing and delivering the BoE’s financial stability objective. The Annual Report sets out how the BoE has done that in the context of three significant challenges: the impact of COVID-19, continuing innovation in payments and preparations for the end of the transition period following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

In terms of future priorities, the Annual Report states that the BoE will:

• Continue to promote FMIs’ financial and operational resilience, with its immediate focus remaining on addressing the impact of COVID-19.
• Examine the pro-cyclicality of margin calls and the resilience of non-bank liquidity when faced with margin calls.
• Contribute to international work to learn the lessons from this year’s market volatility.
• Develop an approach to recognition and supervision of incoming central counterparties.
• Continue to focus on innovation in payments.