Transcript: The Financial Services and Markets Bill 2026: Key implications

Transcript

Conor MacManus: The Financial Services and Markets Bill 2026 is the latest phase in the Government's regulatory reform agenda.

The objectives of the Bill are to encourage innovation across the sector, remove regulatory burdens where possible, and support the broader growth and competitiveness objective the Government has for the sector.

There's a lot in the Bill, but some of the most high profile provisions include overhauling the Financial Ombudsman Service, laying the groundwork for reforms to the Senior Managers and Certification Regime, making changes to the Ring-Fencing Regime for large banks and bringing the Payment System regulator into the FCA.

Overall, the Bill is less about creating new initiatives from the Government and more about delivery of their existing commitments as set out in the Leeds Reforms and elsewhere.

The impact of the Bill would differ by sector.

Clearly, for those banks subject to the ring-fencing requirements, changes to that framework will be particularly impactful.

But for the wider sector, the Bill creates opportunities too. For example, changes to the Senior Managers and Certification Regime will create opportunities to reduce costs and optimise operating models. Similarly, reforms to the Financial Ombudsman Service, something that the industry has been calling for for a number of years, should hopefully create more predictability and certainty for firms to innovate and support their customers.

Some of the details of the reforms will come later through regulatory consultations, but the overall trajectory and objectives of the government is clear, to remove burdens and encourage firms to innovate, to support their customers and to grow.

It's really important that firms start to consider the opportunities that will come off the back of the Bill now in order to take advantage of them once they crystallise.