Focus has now turned to the forthcoming General Election, which is set for 4 July. As members would expect, during the pre-election period we will continue to push the priorities for our industry from the next government and underline its significant role in enabling growth across the economy. While several of our events and activities involving MPs have been cancelled during this period, we will still hold our Annual Conference on 27 June at the QEII Centre in London.
Trust and reputation
We recently launched our manifesto for the next government, which sets out five practical recommendations for the next government to deliver our shared objectives and prioritise stability, certainty and predictability in regulation, tax and other key policy areas. This will be a useful tool for engaging with media and other non-political stakeholders in the run up to the election. We have already spoken to various outlets about our industry’s key asks and will continue to find the right opportunities to set those out over the coming weeks.
Together with the City of London Corporation, we published the first-ever Total Tax Contribution study for the financial and related professional services industry, which made the front page of City A.M., among other coverage. The research, conducted by PwC, showed that the industry contributed a record £110.2bn in taxes in 2023 – a contribution of approximately £1,643 per individual in the UK that goes towards government services provision and enough to fund the government’s annual education budget.
Since our last activity update, we have delivered two further conferences: our inaugural ‘Future Skills Conference’ with the Financial Services Skills Commission, sponsored by Lloyds Banking Group, Yorkshire Building Society, Capital One, and Phoenix Group; and our third ‘International Conference’, sponsored by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
Both were a great success. At our Future Skills Conference, over 170 delegates heard from a diverse line-up of speakers discussing the industry’s future skills and talent challenges and opportunities. At our International Conference, over 250 delegates – including Ambassadors, senior civil servants, senior practitioners and media – engaged in discussions on security and the impact of geopolitics on the industry. They also heard from the then Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP, Secretary of State for Business and Trade, and Catherine West MP, Shadow Minister for Asia and the Pacific.
Long term competitiveness
We have been actively and strongly pushing back on the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) proposals to ‘name and shame’ firms and/or individuals before the conclusion of enforcement investigations. Working alongside members, trade association partners and other business groups, we have co-signed two joint letters on the issue, led by UK Finance; and set out the industry’s strong opposition through the media, including in a front-page story and other articles in the Financial Times, as well as in Reuters, City A.M., Politico and others. The CEO was the first witness to give evidence to the House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee, where the topic was well covered. He also emphasised that for the UK to remain a world-class financial centre, it needs a regulatory framework that is more stable, more proportionate, and more agile.
Following extensive engagement last year with the government and parliamentarians on the National Security Bill, and the subsequent removal of industry from the definition of a ‘foreign principal’ in the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS), we have been strongly advocating against any additional restrictions under the FIRS that would unnecessarily impact the industry and practitioners. We will keep a close eye on this following the election and revisit our engagement on this issue as required.
Ahead of the election being announced, we hosted the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Alex Chalk MP, for an engaging senior member roundtable. It focused on the critical role that law and regulation play in supporting the UK’s position as a leading international financial and related professional services centre – a core priority for this aspect of our work.
Through our Capital Markets Group, we have continued to advocate for joined-up policy to move UK companies through start-up and scale-up and onto the main UK equity markets and encouraging the government to work with industry to explore how to incentivise greater UK investment in UK equities. These asks are also included within our manifesto for the next government.