John Glen MP delivered a speech to the UK Finance Annual Dinner in which he provided an update on the Wholesale Markets Review. Mr Glen noted that there has been a broad consensus on the vast majority of the issues identified in the government’s July 2021 consultation and that he will publish a full summary of the responses to the consultation in early 2022.
Mr Glen confirmed that the government intends to legislate as early as parliamentary time allows to implement many of the changes proposed in the consultation, including:
- revoking the share trading obligation and the double volume cap;
- recalibrating the transparency regime for fixed income and derivatives markets; and
- reducing the scope of the position limits regime for commodity derivatives and transferring the setting of position limit controls from the FCA to trading venues.
The government is working closely with the FCA since some reforms will require changes to regulatory rules or guidance and the FCA has committed to starting that process in the new year.