Following day three of its Report stage, the House of Lords has passed the Financial Services Bill with amendments.
The final amendments to be agreed by the Lords include:
- an amendment that, in certain circumstances, the provision of cash does not constitute a “payment service” for the purposes of the Payment Services Regulations 2017. Persons would no longer have to be authorised by, or registered with, the FCA in order to provide that service;
- an amendment requiring FCA to have regard to the carbon target for 2050 when making Part 9C rules (defined in section 143F FSMA, inserted by Schedule 2 to the Bill). This duty does not apply to Part 9C rules made on or before 1 January 2022; and
- an amendment requiring PRA to have regard to the carbon target for 2050 when making CRR rules. This duty does not apply to CRR rules made on or before 1 January 2022.
The amendments not moved or withdrawn include:
- amendments on digital identification in the UK financial system;
- an amendment to introduce a mandatory regime for open finance;
- an amendment creating a supervisory body for each of FCA and PRA; and
- an amendment creating a body corporate called UK Finance Watch to provide oversight of the UK’s financial services industry.
The Lords third reading was agreed without debate and so the Bill has now been returned to the Commons with amendments.