Activity update

Work has continued at pace across the breadth of our strategic priorities, with key activities and outcomes delivered. We have been heavily engaged in activity leading up to the trade deals with India and the US and the reset of UK-EU relations. We’ve delivered two conferences, collectively attracting over 450 delegates and bringing together expert speakers from the regulators, policymaking, industry and academia, with preparations well underway for our Annual Conference in June. We’ve published several reports, papers and consultation responses on a variety of critical industry issues, and have continued to progress our engagement with key stakeholders in key international markets, in Westminster and Whitehall and across the UK’s regions and nations. Our 2025 member survey is now live and we would very much welcome your participation. It is an opportunity for members to share thoughts and perspectives on our impact and influence and help ensure that we’re continuing to focus in the right areas. The survey is conducted independently by research agency Mustard, and all responses are anonymised. Its findings are used to shape our future planning and activity. Thank you for your support.

Trust and reputation

Over the last couple of months, we’ve run two successful conferences supporting key strategic priorities: our International Conference in April, sponsored by Freshfields and State Street, and our Future Skills Conference with the Financial Services Skills Commission (FSSC), sponsored by KPMG UK, Lloyd’s Banking Group, Nationwide and Natwest. Our International Conference provided a platform to discuss the rapidly shifting geopolitical backdrop, global trade dynamics, and the challenges and opportunities facing businesses across our industry. The Future Skills Conference focused on the skills and talent challenges and opportunities impacting our industry. Both featured a great line-up of speakers alongside a lively series of panel sessions and in conversations with experts in their fields. Preparations are well underway for our Annual Conference at the QEII Centre in London on 26 June. Keynote speakers include Nikhil Rathil, Chief Executive of the FCA; Emma Reynolds MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury; and the Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP, Leader of the Opposition. You can register to attend on our website.

On 1 April, Sir Edward Braham of M&G plc took over as Chair of our Next Generation Leadership Council (NGLC), overseeing the final stages of recruitment for our latest cohort of NGLC members. The new members will join the June NGLC meeting. Our thanks go to the NGLC Nominations Committee and NGLC alumni members for their contribution to the nominations process and to Leadership Council members for their continued support for the group.

We are also delighted to announce Robert Hughes-Penny of Rathbones as the new Chair of our Business Council. Robert succeeds Alasdair Haynes of Aquis Exchange, who has done an excellent job chairing the group since it was established four years ago.

International

Against an evolving political backdrop, we have continued or progress our US engagement, including through a US Market Advisory Group (MAG) meeting with HM Government (HMG) to discuss UK-US trade and regulation policy priorities. We have also been collaborating with the British American Finance Alliance (BAFA) to refine our bilateral industry messages and key asks to keep pace with the policy landscape. Following the UK-US deal, we recognised the positive starting point and noted our hope for the agreement to pave the way for more future mutually beneficial trade opportunities between our industry, in particular on technology and innovation. We have announced Matthew Allen, Partner and Global Head of Financial Services at Eversheds Sutherland, as Chair Elect of our US MAG. He will take over from Cuan Coulter, Head of UK and Ireland at State Street, later this month, who has done a tremendous job leading the group during his term.

We submitted the industry’s response to the ‘reset’ of UK-EU relations to the House of Lords European Affairs Committee inquiry, and actively engaged through the media to discuss our priorities around the UK-EU Summit on 19 June. We also set out the industry’s priorities with the senior Cabinet Office team leading the UK’s reset work emphasising the value of achieving improvements in services trade. Further to that, it was positive that the Rt Hon Nick Thomas Symonds MP, Minister for the Constitution and European Union Relations, acknowledged that achieving such improvements would have great potential to drive the government’s growth agenda. While the Summit focused mostly on trade in goods, we welcomed the agreement to discuss UK citizens’ access to EU border gates, which has been one of our key short-term goals to improving UK-EU relations, and also the setting up of dialogues on business mobility. As part of our work advocating for a stronger EU-UK relationship, we recently held bilateral stakeholder meetings in Brussels with the European Banking Federation and the UK Mission to the European Union, and also attended our first meeting as members of the Third Country Financial Services Network.

In collaboration with HM Treasury (HMT), the FCA and the Bank of England, we are developing an activation strategy to help firms prepare for the Berne Financial Services Agreement, which will go live in early 2026. We also presented proposals to the FCA and PRA to streamline authorisations under the SMCR for firms seeking to bring overseas talent to the UK, reducing cost, time and complexity.

To coincide with our International Conference, we published a joint report with Freshfields, benchmarking the UK’s inbound investment screening regime against ten other jurisdictions. Drawing on best practices, the report provides recommendations to reduce hurdles to much needed investment, while continuing to uphold the fundamental objective of protecting national security. The report will form the basis of discussions with regulators, stakeholders and policymakers as we look to build on the recommendations to drive growth and reduce regulatory hurdles to much needed investment. The UK-India Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) took place in April, a key milestone in strengthening economic and trade ties between the two countries. Alongside the EFD, the India- UK Financial Partnership (IUKFP), for which we run the UK secretariat, convened to discuss future workstreams and launch its latest report ‘Catalysing Bilateral Growth: Connecting India and the UK’s Equity Capital Markets’ with both the UK Chancellor and India’s Minister of Finance in attendance. We were also pleased to see the conclusion of the UK-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in May following ongoing engagement with HMT and DBT throughout the negotiation process to provide industry input on key issues, including cross-border data flows and bank branches licensing. We will continue to engage on the Bilateral Investment Treaty as discussions progress.

We have entered into a new partnership with the UK-ASEAN Business Council to progress shared financial and related professional services priorities in ASEAN. An MoU was created to outline the partnership model and formalise the collaboration on regional issues, enabling our ASEAN MAG to focus on bilateral matters.

In March, we held a roundtable with Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister and other key government and private sector stakeholders to discuss the creation of an International Financial Centre in Vietnam. The chair of our UK-Vietnam IFC working group held further discussions with government to propose next steps, which were submitted to Parliament.

In March 2025, we visited Ukraine to engage with key stakeholders, including the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, the National Securities and Stock Exchange Commission, and the State Property Fund, to discuss the next steps in ‘The City-Ukraine Hub project’ on supporting Ukraine’s recovery.

We recently visited Nigeria to sign an MoU with the Lagos International Financial Centre Council (LIFCC) as part of an important initiative to strengthen collaboration between the UK and Nigeria in the financial and related professional services industry and to help position Lagos as a globally competitive financial hub. The LIFC will serve as a catalyst for investment, innovation, and the expansion of Nigeria’s role in international financial markets.

We continue to progress work with Rwanda, hosting a delegation from Rwanda Finance and the Kigali International Financial Centre in London to discuss emerging thematic issues impacting the financial and related professional services industry. We shared knowledge and best practices on the development of the Rwanda Financial Sector Skills Council.

We supported the UK-Azerbaijan intergovernmental dialogue in London and hosted meetings with the Baku Stock Exchange and the Central Bank of Azerbaijan on capital markets developments and digital banking. We also participated in a public-private sector roundtable on improving bilateral trade between the UK and Kazakhstan. In collaboration with the British Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, we have begun exploring how to strengthen bilateral trade and investment in financial services between the UK and Mongolia.

Long-term competitiveness

We have been engaging closely with the government as they seek to reform Britain’s planning system which can be a barrier to growth and investment. In 2024, we submitted ideas to the government as they began to review the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) setting out three clear principles they should follow when reforming planning: resource, predictability and efficiency. Now that the government has published a draft Planning and Infrastructure Bill, we have sent further evidence to the Bill Committee, who will scrutinise the legislation building on these three principles, and are delivering a wider engagement plan to political stakeholders across Westminster and Whitehall.

We continue to engage with MPs who have brought the issue of private sector investment in British defence firms and equipment to the top of the political agenda. Our CEO recently represented the industry at a roundtable on the subject alongside senior representatives from banks and defence firms. We have been working closely with members and the ADS Group (the trade association representing aerospace, defence, security and space companies) to produce and launch a joint policy paper ‘Finance and investment for UK defence’, which outlines practical steps that the government can take to make the defence industry more attractive to private finance and investment. The paper is being used as a discussion point with MPs and other relevant stakeholders, including the Defence Select Committee.

We have also continued to engage with the Business and Trade Select Committee on members’ priorities, giving oral evidence to the Committee’s inquiry into the industrial strategy and to their inquiry into export-led growth.

The 2025 iteration of our annual ‘Key facts about UK-based financial and related professional services 2025’ report, which sets out the considerable contribution the industry makes to the UK economy, was published in April. The report, which is regularly quoted by policymakers, MPs and the media, also underlines the strength of the industry across the UK, highlighting the spread of employment beyond London, across the country’s regions and nations.

Regions and nations

In April, we published the latest version of our report ‘Exporting from across Britain: Financial and related professional services 2025’, which provides an analysis of the latest available data on industry exports from across Britain. Highlights from the report show that around half of all industry exports originated outside London in 2022, underlining the significant contribution the industry makes to the economy right across the UK.

Ahead of the recent local elections, we produced manifestos for each of the areas holding mayoral elections. These build on our long-standing policy positions and were supported by pro-active media and stakeholder campaigns. The recommendations in the manifestos will shape discussions with the mayors over the coming weeks and months.

We have partnered with the FSSC to convene a group of members for a roundtable with Toby Perkins MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Apprenticeships, to discuss our key positions on reform of the Apprenticeship Levy, and to deliver an event in Belfast focused on addressing the skills shortages our industry faces in Northern Ireland.

We have been working with metro mayors and members to support the development of Local Growth Plans by convening key stakeholders. Our first Local Growth Plan discussion took place in Sheffield with the South Yorkshire Combined Authority and we look forward to building on these conversations and taking the discussion to more regions throughout the year.

Green and sustainable finance

As part of our work through the IRSG, we published a report in partnership with Clifford Chance on the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) Standards, ‘Harmonising Sustainability Disclosures: A Roadmap for the Adoption of ISSB Standards’. The report provides an overview of jurisdictional approaches and implementation challenges and highlights the risks of regulatory divergence and the benefits of alignment with the ISSB Standards. It offers recommendations for policymakers, regulators and industry stakeholders to support a harmonised global framework.

We have also published a policy paper, ‘Unlocking the Potential of Nature Markets in the UK’, which explores how nature markets—such as biodiversity credits and offsets—can help address biodiversity loss and climate change and key barriers to private sector participation in these markets. The paper provides key policy recommendations for government and regulators to support the scaling of nature markets in the UK and includes some talking points for our policymaker engagement over the coming months in the lead up to COP30.

We responded to the Treasury Select Committee’s call for evidence on the role of the National Wealth Fund. Our response focused on how the NWF can effectively deliver the mandate set by government through deploying its limited public capital strategically, focusing on being catalytic and additional to the market, effectively leveraging private capital, and ensuring coherence across public investment priorities and public policy levers.

We’ve also held two member roundtables with Polly Billington MP, member of the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, and Toby Perkins MP, Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee. Both were a great opportunity to discuss the role of our industry in supporting the transition to a netzero and nature-positive economy. We held the first meeting of the Green and Sustainable Finance Group, with its new Chair, Thierry d’Argent, CEO Societe Generale London Branch and Group Country Officer, and the first meeting of our newly established International Climate Finance Working Group, which has been set up to address international climate finance issues and related activity, including plans for COP30.