2026 has begun with real intent, not least with the publication of our landmark report with PwC UK, ‘No time to lose: Reasserting UK leadership in financial and related professional services’. In recent weeks, we have also launched our new Defence and Resilience Group, co-chaired by Joe Cassidy of KPMG and Sir General Richard Barrons KCB CBE of Universal Defence and Security Systems; co-hosted an event at Davos with EY, the Department for Business and Trade and the City of London Corporation; and attended the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong. We are currently finalising preparations for our Annual Dinner, in partnership with Sullivan & Cromwell.
Long-term competitiveness
We were delighted to welcome Lucy Rigby KC MP to launch our ‘No time to lose’ report with PwC UK at a senior member roundtable. It was also trailed in advance through a significant piece in the Sunday Times.
The report – which is based on one of the largest industry consultations in recent times, with insights drawn from over 300 leaders across industry, government, regulators and academia – makes clear that without bolder ambition, faster and more decisive action to reform and innovate, the UK risks ceding unrecoverable ground to competitor financial centres over the next decade. It sets out five imperatives for action, with economic modelling showing the substantial gains for acting decisively: an additional £53bn in annual economic output by 2035 – the equivalent of adding a city almost the size of Edinburgh and Glasgow combined to the UK economy each year – with benefits felt across the wider economy, including more capital to support national priorities such as defence and energy security.
This report will inform our activities and advocacy over the coming months and years. Our sincere thanks go to the team at PwC, led by Darren Ketteringham, UK Financial Services Leader, for their outstanding work. If you haven’t yet had the chance yet to read the full report, it is available on our website.
At the end of last year, we held the first meeting of our new Defence and Resilience Group to explore the industry’s role and contribution to supporting the government’s new national security strategy and increasing defence budget. The group will work with senior members from across financial and related professional services and the defence sector to improve the ability of companies to invest in and support defence companies and related infrastructure.
We continue to engage with HM Treasury to inform a potential Financial Services Bill, which is anticipated to be laid in the next Parliamentary session. There are several areas where legislation is required to enable regulatory reform and boost UK competitiveness, including reform of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime and the Financial Ombudsman Scheme. We are very focused on ensuring financial services legislation is prioritised.
We have discussed with HM Treasury, and directly with the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, the government’s proposals to reform the regulatory system for anti-money laundering and counterterrorism finance. We have reiterated the legal and professional services sectors’ opposition to regulatory consolidation and set out what we believe would be a compromise and acceptable way forward.
We have also raised with senior officials at the Department for Business and Trade members’ concerns about proposals to increase the compensation cap for unfair dismissal as part of the new Employment Rights Bill, including facilitating a roundtable for members and officials to discuss the details of the policy’s implementation.
Building on our engagement with the Deputy Prime Minister following the recent party conference, we were pleased to see the Chair of our Legal Services Group, James Palmer CBE of Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, appointed to the government’s new English Law Panel. With a remit to consider how best to protect the reputation of English law and how to promote its use better internationally, we will be seeking engagement from our legal services members to drive this forward.
Since our last update, we’ve published two of our annual reports: ‘Key facts about the UK as an international financial centre 2025’ and ‘UK legal services 2025’ – both which serve as reference points for industry stakeholders, policymakers and regulators. The latter report was launched at an event with Minister Sarah Sackman KC MP and both generated positive media coverage underlining the strengths of the UK as an international financial centre and UK legal services.
International
We were delighted to co-host an event at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos with EY, the Department for Business and Trade, and the City of London Corporation, which brought together global financial services leaders to discuss how the UK could further boost its attractiveness to international investors and go further and faster to accelerate progress in areas such as technology and data, and talent attraction.
We have also formed a new partnership with the World Economic Forum, publishing a joint thought leadership article during Davos to showcase the role of the insurance industry in unlocking innovation to increase economic resilience. We will build on this partnership in the year ahead to increase our reach, advocacy and the profile of UK industry expertise.
The first meeting of our refreshed International Financial Centre (IFC) Group discussed the implications of US–China relations and the challenges and opportunities this creates for the UK’s role as an IFC. This will generate insights to support members as they navigate the increasingly complex global operating environment and informed our CEO’s visit to Hong Kong for the Asian Financial Forum. He was also joined by our board Chair during the visit, which included a roundtable with senior regulators and members on opportunities to deepen UK-Hong Kong collaboration in areas such as asset management and transition finance.
We submitted the industry’s capital markets vision and key priorities to the US-UK Transatlantic Task Force for Markets of the Future. Following the submission of our industry-wide report to HM Treasury in December, which included 50 draft recommendations, officials have invited us to lead on follow-up meetings with the visiting US Treasury delegation and the Economic Secretary to the Treasury. As an outcome of the CEO’s visit to Canada in mid-November, we are exploring the creation of a business-led taskforce on closer trade and investment ties and incorporating financial and related professional services into the two Prime Ministers’ Joint Statement to drive strong government engagement.
His Excellency Pedro Serrano, EU Ambassador to the UK, joined a recent Extraordinary Leadership Council meeting, discussing his insights into the bilateral relationship and the EU’s approach to China and the US. Members were updated on next steps for progressing matters under the Common Understanding agreed at the UK–EU Leaders’ Summit by senior Cabinet Office representatives at our Europe Market Advisory Group meeting. We advocated for the interests of financial services and the wider trade in services agenda at the UK Domestic Advisory Group, engaging directly with the Minister for European Relations, Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds MP.
We welcomed India’s decision to increase foreign ownership in the insurance sector to 100%, which is a key outcome of our advocacy work. We made good progress on the new India-UK Financial Partnership (IUFKP) workstreams announced at the last Economic and Financial Dialogue in 2025 and are organising an AI roundtable as part of the Modi AI Summit in February together with the High Commission and the UK India Business Council.
We visited Riyadh in December, meeting with senior stakeholders and members, to progress discussions on priority market access issues, and identify opportunities for deeper regulatory cooperation between the UK and Saudi Arabia. We welcomed the establishment of the new UKTurkey Financial Services Working Group, and will continue to engage with industry and the UK government on this new initiative and the UK-Turkey Free Trade negotiations.
Working with the UK-ASEAN Business Council, we secured the first ever UK consultation seat at the ASEAN Deputy Finance Ministers and Central Bank Deputy Governors Meeting taking place in April 2026. This will enable members direct engagement with these policymakers on key growth opportunities. At an Islamic finance roundtable co-chaired by the Economic Secretary to the Treasury and the Minister for Small Business and Economic Transformation, we continued to make the case for new ways the UK can build its global credentials in this fast growing area of financial services. We built on this work through the CEO’s visit to Jakarta at the end of January, where he met with Vice Ministers of Finance and Trade Ministries and senior regulators.
We welcomed the FCA-MAS announcement that they will collaborate on AI adoption, which is an outcome of our work around the UK–Singapore regulatory dialogues. Drawing on developments across leading jurisdictions, we published the IRSG report on ‘AI in Financial Services: Emerging Global Norms’, providing clear, actionable steps to promote the safe and responsible innovation of AI in financial services. This work will be profiled in a forthcoming webinar with UK and international regulators.
Our international development work continues at pace in Vietnam, Nigeria, and Ukraine. The Vietnamese National Steering Committee approved the creation of an IFC in Ho Chi Minh City, along with the use of English Common Law, which was a key recommendation of our work and will make it easier for UK-based businesses to operate in Vietnam. The Lagos State has now formally approved the creation of an IFC in Lagos, and we are working towards Federal Government approval. With ACCA, we have commenced training 190 public sector officials in public financial management under the City-Ukraine Hub project.
We presented our insurance task force recommendations to the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine to address key gaps in the insurance sector, which will eventually lead to more opportunities for the insurance companies in the country. We continue to support Dame Julia Hogget’s leadership and representation on the Business Advisory Council of Ukraine, engaging with the government, regulator and international community to support the transformation of the National Security and Stock Market Commission of Ukraine into a regulator that is reliable, transparent and fit for purpose.
