On 1 April 2026, there was published a letter from the Bank of England (BoE) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in response to a letter from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, and the Secretary of State for Business and Trade on
Recent statements and staff actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission reflect a meaningful shift toward a more structured and harmonized regulatory approach to digital assets that should assist in the integration of digital assets within US financial markets.
Read our alert here.
In the second episode of our Global Regulation Tomorrow Plus mini-series on artificial intelligence in financial services, Matthew Gregory and Simon Lovegrove discuss the Mills Review.
On 4 February 2026, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/102) (the Regulations) were published on legislation.gov.uk, together with an explanatory memorandum. The Regulations will establish a regulatory regime for cryptoasset activities under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA).
Background
On 28 January 20206, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a webpage with the official translations of its guidelines setting out the criteria to assess knowledge and competence under the Regulation on markets in cryptoassets ((EU) 2023/1114) (MiCA), the final report on which was published in July 2025.
Summary
This episode of Global Regulation Tomorrow Plus is the first in our new mini-series on artificial intelligence in financial services. We discuss the Treasury Committee’s landmark report on AI in UK financial services, published on 22 January 2026.
Listen to this episode here.
On 29 January 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) updated its webpage in relation to new regime for cryptoasset regulation to confirm that the application period for firms that want to undertake the new cryptoasset regulated activities will be open from 30 September 2026 to 28 February 2027.
The new cryptoasset regime is
On 29 January 2026, the House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee (Committee) launched a Call for Evidence for its inquiry on the growth and proposed regulation of stablecoins in the UK.
The Committee have launched this inquiry to assess the opportunities and risks that the growth of stablecoins may present for the