Proposed Financial Services and Markets Bill

On the 19th July 2022 the Chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi laid out his plans for changes to the UK financial services sector, with the corresponding Financial Services and Markets Bill being published the following day.

This Bill looks to implement the outcomes of the Future Regulatory Framework (FRF) Review by revoking much of the EU retained law, including the UK Market Abuse Regulations. This legislation will be replaced with a new framework aimed at making the UK’s financial services sector the “the most trusted and competitive in the world.”

The Bill in its current format is extensive, so we would anticipate it to be a number of years and many iterations before we see it in its final form. It will certainly be interesting to see the proposed changes take form over the coming months and years. Given that much of the EU legislation the Bill looks to replace was originally driven by the UK, it does seem unlikely that any implemented reforms will do away with key compliance fundamentals such as Insider Lists.