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  • Financial Services policy briefing: January

Financial Services policy briefing: January

Ana I. Gallego Senior Policy Adviser, Financial Services

As we look to the priorities for 2021, the Financial Services team will focus on a number of critical consultations and will engage with members on the role of financial services in recovery and in the longer term.

12 Jan 2021, 4 min read

Financial Services Future Regulatory Framework Review

On 19 October, HM Treasury announced a consultation to explore how the UK regulatory framework for financial services will adapt outside the EU.

The consultation is part of the second phase of the Future Regulatory Framework (FRF) Review and focuses on ensuring effective arrangements for accountability, scrutiny and public engagement with the policy-making process. The government plans to release a second consultation in 2021, setting out a final package of proposals and how they will be considered.

The CBI will respond to this consultation, closing on 19 February 2021. Find out further information on the consultation and details on how to get involved.

Solvency II consultation

On 19 October, HM Treasury announced a call for evidence to seek views on reforming the prudential regulation of the UK insurance sector. This call for evidence is the first stage of the review of Solvency II and is underpinned by three objectives:

  • To spur a vibrant, innovative, and internationally competitive insurance sector
  • To protect policyholders and ensure the safety and soundness of firms
  • To support insurance firms to provide long-term capital to support growth, including investment in infrastructure, venture capital and growth equity, and other long-term productive assets, as well as investment consistent with the government’s climate change objectives.

The CBI will respond to this consultation, closing on 19 February 2021. Find out further information on the consultation and details on how to get involved.

Treasury Select Committee inquiry on the future of financial services

The Treasury Select Committee has relaunched its inquiry into the future of financial services. The FS sector will play a critical role in powering the recovery as well as help the government meet its levelling-up and green industrial revolution goals. As part of this, the inquiry is looking at how the sector can take advantage of the UK’s new trading environment, the FS regulatory framework outside of the EU, how to develop new areas of growth for the sector, and the role of Parliament in influencing new FS regulations.

In the CBI’s view, the government’s financial services priority should be to ensure that the UK retains its long-term attractiveness, as a place to do business and preserves its global competitiveness. In particular, the CBI assessment focuses on three pillars:

  1. Regulatory Development: develop regulations that support global cohesion and deliver market access.
  2. Critical Infrastructure: ensure that financial services has access to the critical infrastructure required to support the sector.
  3. Centres of Excellence: focus on supporting and promoting the UK as the best place to develop established and emerging markets where the UK is a world leader.

The CBI will submit a response to this inquiry, closing on 19 February 2021. Find out further information on the inquiry and details on how to get involved.

Brexit and financial services

Thank you for your continued feedback on the impact of Brexit on your own business as well as your customers. Your insights on what next and views on equivalence continue to be welcome, as well as opportunities for the UK going forward. You can find our UK transition hub here. If you would like to share your latest views please do contact your account manager or reach out directly to Flora Hamilton, Director, Financial Services.

CBI Corporate Forum - Payments Deep-Dive Session, 26 January 2021, 3pm-4.30pm

On 26 January, the FS team will host a deep-dive session with our Corporate Forum, focused on payments and what to expect in 2021. The Corporate Forum is run by the financial services team and provides a forum for non-financial services companies to discuss how financial services policy is impacting their business.

For this session, we would like to extend this invitation to the payments experts in your firm. We will cover the payments regulatory landscape, upcoming trends and projects for 2021, Open Banking, Request to Pay and ISO 20022. We are expecting to have representatives from OBIE and Pay.UK to join us for an update on their work.

Please feel free to share this invite internally to the relevant teams and contact Ana I. Gallego if your firm would like to attend.