On 29 June 2023 the Financial Services and Markets Bill received Royal Assent becoming the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023. Great hopes have been pinned on the Act, HM Treasury describes it as a "rocket boost" that is "central to the Government's vision to grow the economy and create an open, sustainable, and technologically advanced financial services sector".

The Act uses Brexit as a springboard to effect a redesign of the UK's financial services legislation and deliver a new package of regulation bespoke to the UK markets. It is hoped that this change will invigorate the status of the UK as a globally competitive financial centre and bring about better outcomes for all market participants consumers and businesses included. Both the FCA and the PRA are given specific statutory objectives to "facilitate the growth and international competitiveness of the UK economy".

The Act also provides for greater scrutiny and oversight of the industry regulators themselves, promotes growth of the wholesale markets (for which the UK is already a world leading centre), aims to protect the provision of cash and deposit services across the UK (particularly for vulnerable customers who rely on cash), brings the regulation of cryptoassets within the regulatory remit and facilitates sandboxes to support continued innovation in the financial services industry.

We will, in due course, be publishing more detailed considerations of key and relevant provisions of the Act.