Activity update

As we head towards the end of the year, we have continued to build relationships with key policymakers and stakeholders; deliver key outputs, including several reports, consultations, events, delegations and engagements; and achieve strong outcomes for members across our strategic priorities. A snapshot of that work is below.

Long-term competitiveness

Following the Autumn Budget, we prepared a summary of the key points for the financial and related professional services industry and how they align with our policy positions, including the key areas we outlined for consideration in our budget submission. You can read our analysis of what the budget means for our industry here.

We’ve continued to discuss industry priorities with key stakeholders, including Lucy Rigby KC MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury (EST), who recently attended one of our Extraordinary Leadership Council meetings, where members were able to directly put forward a number of views on current policy issues.

To further support our calls to reduce the cost of regulatory compliance, we have partnered with PwC to produce ‘Reducing the cost of compliance: Unlocking efficiency, competitiveness and growth for the UK financial services sector’, a new report that shows regulatory compliance is estimated to be over 13% of operating costs for financial services firms. The report outlines some clear recommendations for regulators and financial services firms to reduce these costs.

We have continued to engage with HM Treasury (HMT) on an approach to tax that will help to maintain the industry’s continued competitiveness. In response to speculation about possible National Insurance Charges (NICs) on LLPs, we co-signed a letter to the Chancellor with the Law Society and other bodies to underline the negative impact this would have on talent, capital and UK attractiveness. This generated widespread media coverage, helping to further emphasise the point. We also wrote directly to HMT, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) highlighting the negative impact of the proposal on the legal and accountancy sectors. Our Legal Services Group has discussed key priorities, including AML and regulation. Members strongly oppose the government’s AML proposals, and we are engaging with HMT and MoJ to put forward members’ views.

In collaboration with other trade bodies, we have urged government to address concerns about its ransomware proposals to ban payments to criminals, particularly regarding the need to clarify and limit the scope of the payment ban. We have continued to press for further industry consultation on the proposed approach alongside urging for the proposals to be dropped. We have so far succeeded in involving HMT and the Home Office in making progress to define the scope of the proposed payment ban.

We have long advocated to HMT the urgency of transitioning to a fully intermediated shareholding system, and therefore welcomed the commitment to this as part of the government’s announcement to establish a Dematerialisation Action Taskforce (DEMAT). Through our Digitisation working group, we will consider how we can support the government in addressing various legal and operational challenges to ensure the UK advances swiftly on this agenda.

The Bank of England’s pro-innovation narrative and approach on AI, DLT, stablecoins and quantum computing has been welcome. This is something for which we have long advocated from regulators and government to support the UK’s position as a leading financial centre for innovation.

As part of our continued engagement with government and regulators as they prioritise retail investment and capital markets in implementing the Leeds reforms, we convened members with Sarah Pritchard, Deputy CEO and Simon Walls, Executive Director, Markets of the FCA, to discuss our priorities in this space. The FCA’s distinction of retail and wholesale in its letter to the government was helpful and we will engage with their upcoming consultation on client categorisation.

We have published our ‘From cash to confidence: Building an investing nation’ report, which outlines key recommendations for how coordinated action between government, regulators and industry can help drive investment. The report makes clear the need for HMT to lead the delivery of a cross department national retail investment vision, further financial education for all, which should begin in, and individual investment metrics through an individual investment scorecard.

Trust and reputation

As part of our ongoing cross-party engagement, we attended five party conferences this year, delivering a series of key engagements at the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat events.

At Labour, together with the ABI, we hosted a drinks reception with the Chancellor; the EST attended our networking breakfast with Lloyds Banking Group; and the Minister for Trade joined our fringe discussion on promoting UK trade in services.

At the Conservative Party Conference, the Shadow Chancellor joined members for a private dinner; the Shadow Economic Secretary shared insights on stimulating economic growth at our fringe panel; and we sponsored the 1922 Committee’s Drinks Reception in partnership with Conservative Home, where our CEO shared the stage with the Leader of the Conservative Party, whose speech focused on the essential role of financial and related professional services in driving economic growth across the UK.

At the Liberal Democrats Conference, the Deputy Leader and Treasury Spokesperson attended a dinner with our members; and we hosted a breakfast roundtable on investment, attended by MPs and peers.

We also attended the Reform UK and SNP party conferences to observe and gather intelligence. We will continue to build on all engagements over the coming weeks and months.

We recently responded to the ONS consultation on updating Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes, focusing on fund management and management consultancy. Better classification will improve official data and support stronger analysis and policymaking for our industry. We engaged closely with the ONS, Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and the Bank of England, and worked with the Investment Association to strengthen our submission and reflect shared priorities.

Regions and nations

The Office for Investment’s (OfI) creation of a new Strategic Opportunities Investment Unit (SIOU) reflected our calls over the last year for a new body to sit between local authorities and investors to better connect capital with investable projects. We continue to work with the OfI on the SIOU’s design and implementation to ensure it makes a real impact on investment and growth.

Linked to this and following positive engagement with the Scotland Office and Minister Kirsty McNeill MP, we are developing a series of local authority teach-ins, starting in Scotland with potential expansion nationwide. These sessions will provide practical guidance to local authorities on attracting investment and supporting upcoming projects, reinforcing our advocacy goal of ensuring that the industry is a trusted partner for policymakers and that its role as a driver of growth is understood.

As part of our ongoing programme of engagement in financial hubs across the country, our recent West Midlands roundtable with Shadow Economic Secretary Mark Garnier OBE MP provided a valuable opportunity to advocate for our key growth and investment priorities and support the Opposition in shaping its policy thinking.

Our National Conference, sponsored by Yorkshire Building Society and Guernsey Finance, took place in Leeds on 27 November. We had a strong line-up of speakers and, given its timing the day after the Budget, it provided a timely and highly engaged platform for in-depth discussion on the key announcements and their implications for the industry. Highlights from the conference will be shared on our website.

International

To demonstrate where industry sees the possibility and value of global regulatory coherence, the IRSG has published the first edition of its ‘Global Regulatory Coherence Dashboard’. The Dashboard maps adoption and implementation of global financial regulations across priority policy areas for the industry and sets out recommendations to support HMT’s Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy’s objective of ‘upholding and shaping international financial regulatory norms and standards’.

We visited Tokyo in October to test and refine our thinking about economic security and ways to strengthen cross-border capital flows between the UK and Japan in dual-use technology sectors and defence. We also held discussions on asset management and capital markets reforms.

We have convened the industry and other key stakeholders, both in the UK and US, to drive major change to how the US and UK capital markets work together. We have worked with the British American Finance Alliance (BAFA), our US Market Advisory Group, our Capital Markets Group and the US-UK Digital Assets Working Group to push forward this work. A steer-co from across the ecosystem has been identifying specific initiatives to drive two-way growth and investment and submitting proposals to HMT’s call for inputs into the UK-US Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future. In mid-November, our CEO visited Washington DC to engage with members and key stakeholders on the taskforce.

To deliver on the commercial benefits of the Berne Financial Service Agreement (BFSA) for our members, we co-chaired an industry roundtable with the Swiss Bankers Association alongside the UK-Swiss Financial Dialogue to outline how companies can benefit from the new agreement. This builds on a series events we have organised with HMT, the State Secretariat for International Finance, LIIBA, the ABI and regulators from both countries.

We continued to make the case for stronger collaboration with the EU while attending the Eurofi conference in Copenhagen. As well as co-hosting our traditional UK pre-Eurofi event with the British Ambassador, we convened a C-suite roundtable with the EST giving industry leaders the opportunity to share perspectives on areas where closer UK–EU engagement could deliver the greatest benefit. Delivering stronger bilateral engagement with key Member States, we held the Anglo-Italian Financial Services Dialogue in Rome, meeting with senior stakeholders at Consob and the Ministry of Economy and Finance. We held the Anglo-German Financial Services Dialogue and led a delegation to Germany, meeting Bundestag members, government departments, and industry leaders to build on the momentum of the Kensington Treaty. The insights from these meetings will feed into the financial services dialogue with Germany expected in December.

Advancing UK priorities on capital markets connectivity, data localisation and technology cooperation, our CEO led an India-UK Financial Partnership delegation to Mumbai and Delhi, building on the recent visit by the Prime Minister. The delegation met with regulators and the Ministry of Finance to advocate for progress and hear from companies on the ground about new growth opportunities that can be pursued.

In October, we established a UK–UAE Dual Listing Task and Finish Group to enhance capital markets connectivity and enable cross-border listing.

International development

We recently supported the Vietnamese General Secretary’s UK visit, which upgraded the UK–Viet Nam diplomatic relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Relationship. Our work on establishing international financial centres (IFCs) in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang has been central to this progress, helping to promote green finance, clean energy and FinTech investment, and enabling Vietnamese firms to invest in the UK. We have also recently run a series of IFC workshops in Viet Nam and discussed applying English common law within the IFCs. This is now formally on the government’s agenda, improving predictability for UK investors.

We delivered our first FDI training for the Lagos IFC Council and Lagos State officials. The bespoke programme focused on global FDI trends, building effective investment strategies, and strengthening stakeholder engagement.

In October, we advanced IFC discussions with Oman and Mongolia, aiming to create easier operating environments for UK businesses and strengthen investment ties.

Following approval from the board in September, we have now established a subsidiary, TheCityUK International, to manage our increasing work in international development. This work will continue to focus on supporting emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) establish international financial centres and open up new opportunities for two-way trade and investment in financial and related professional services.

Green and sustainable finance

We attended COP30 in Belém from 9 to 16 November to promote the role of our industry in supporting delivery of the goals of the Paris Agreement. We co-hosted a roundtable with EY on scaling transition finance, covering policy innovation, capital mobilisation, and cross-border collaboration. We held a ‘UK leadership in sustainable finance’ breakfast with KPMG, focusing on the UK industry’s role in mobilising climate finance, fostering public-private collaboration, and supporting emerging markets. We also participated in other events, including a UK Pavilion session on the GCPA Finance Mission, a panel on transition finance with DTEK and an event at the Ukraine Pavilion celebrating 100 years of UK–Ukraine diplomatic relations. There was a positive atmosphere at COP30, with a strong representation from our industry and a clear focus on action and delivery. We will be taking forward plans to strengthen partnerships across the financial ecosystem and ensure our industry is fully engaged with the Action Agenda in the months ahead.

In September, the IRSG responded to key consultations on the UK’s sustainable finance framework. This included the DBT consultation on the endorsement of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) Standards in the UK, highlighting strong support for these standards and emphasising the need to minimise divergence from the global baseline. The IRSG also responded to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s (DESNZ) consultation on transition plan requirements, underlining the need for any future UK transition plan requirements to align with global standards and the importance of appropriate sequencing alongside other elements of the UK’s sustainable finance framework.

We responded to the Transition Finance Council’s (TFC) consultation on transition finance guidelines via the IRSG. Our response highlighted the importance of interoperability while providing flexibility to accommodate differences in regulatory approaches and market maturity. We will continue to engage with the development of the TFC’s transition finance guidelines through the international consultation on the updated draft transition finance guidelines and new draft Implementation Handbook.

We continue to engage with key stakeholders on this agenda, including holding a roundtable with Toby Perkins MP, Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, to discuss the Committee’s work, its report on natural capital, and opportunities to scale finance for nature-positive outcomes. We also engaged with DESNZ on the Carbon Budget Delivery and Growth Plan (CBDGP) and its Investor Prospectus, providing members with early insights to inform investment decisions in the net-zero transition.