Rishi Sunak has announced a range of measures the UK is now to take to ensure the financial services industry moves forward. In a speech, he praised all the measures the industry has taken to date and through the crisis, calling out in particular that the financial services industry is genuinely a country-wide industry. He noted:
- the Financial Services Bill, passing through Parliament;
- the need for certainty in regulatory approach – and noting that the EU is clearly not prepared to assess the UK for equivalence in some areas, so the UK is moving forward to publish its own set of equivalence decisions together with a framework for its approach to equivalence more generally;
- progress in negotiations with non-EU countries, specifically Switzerland, India and Japan;
- the forthcoming launch of a call for evidence on the UK’s overseas regime;
- a forthcoming consultation on reforming the UK’s investment funds regime;
- continuing focus on fintech possibilities and the next stage of the Payments Landscape Review;
- a consultation on treatment of stablecoins; and
- measures to support green finance, such as enhanced disclosures and a new Sovereign Green Bond