Chris Holmes - Community Author: Finextra Research

The Financial Services and Markets Bill reaches final stages

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

The Financial Services and Markets Bill reaches final stages

The Financial Services and Markets Bill could be described as epic – in terms of proportions (346 pages), in terms of impact (biggest shake up of financial services in a generation), and in terms of the time it is taking to make its way through all parliamentary stages. The Bill was introduced in the Queen’s speech in May 2022 and given first rea...

28 June 2023 /regulation

The Financial Services and Markets Bill - Crypto, cash, and a regulatory dash

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

The Financial Services and Markets Bill - Crypto, cash, and a regulatory dash

The Financial Services and Markets Bill is the biggest shake up of financial services in a generation. It is making its way steadily through the legislative process and has on 23rd March 2023, completed Committee Stage in the House of Lords. Report Stage is yet to be scheduled. It is a huge Bill which will make wide-ranging changes to the regulati...

03 April 2023 /regulation

The Westminster Series: Optimising the potential of the Financial Services and Markets Bill

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

The Westminster Series: Optimising the potential of the Financial Services and Markets Bill

I have written here before about the Financial Services and Markets Bill - the biggest reform of financial services in a generation. It is a huge opportunity. According to the Government the bill will: implement the outcomes of the Future Regulatory Framework review (reshaping the UK’s regulatory and legislative regime as an independent state outs...

18 January 2023 /regulation

The Westminster Series: Key questions for the Chancellor’s ‘Edinburgh Reforms’

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

The Westminster Series: Key questions for the Chancellor’s ‘Edinburgh Reforms’

On Friday the 9th December, Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt unveiled the ‘Edinburgh Reforms’ of UK financial services – over 30 regulatory reforms to unlock investment and turbocharge growth in towns and cities across the UK. The Chancellor positioned these reforms as the next step in a plan kicked off by the previous Chancellor (now PM)’...

14 December 2022 /regulation

The Westminster Series: How will the Electronic Trade Documents Bill transform trade in the UK?

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

The Westminster Series: How will the Electronic Trade Documents Bill transform trade in the UK?

The Electronic Trade Documents Bill is one of the most important bills you have never heard of. Not only will this bill make trade faster, cheaper, and greener, it is an English law model of how to legislate for technology through specific criteria. A blockchain bill that will stimulate blockchain development and adoption without ever mentioning b...

02 November 2022 /regulation

The Westminster Series: The second reading of the Financial Services and Markets Bill

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

The Westminster Series: The second reading of the Financial Services and Markets Bill

A vision to promote competition, innovation and growth but does it go far enough on financial inclusion, the environment, and the role of the regulators? I have written before about the Financial Services and Markets Bill - an incredibly important piece of legislation currently before Parliament. The Bill is set to usher in the largest change to f...

17 October 2022 /regulation

The Westminister Series: Westminister cryptoasset debate

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

The Westminister Series: Westminister cryptoasset debate

One of the last debates in the most recent Parliamentary sitting, suspended following the tragic death of Her Late Majesty, was on cryptoassets, cryptocurrencies, and their regulation. A good debate in which positive, encouraging comments were made by the Minister. Martin Docherty-Hughes, the MP who secured the debate, is a long-time blockchain su...

26 September 2022 /regulation

The Westminster Series: The arrival of the Financial Services and Markets Bill

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

The Westminster Series: The arrival of the Financial Services and Markets Bill

Since its inclusion in the Queen’s Speech on May 11, 2022, many of us have been awaiting the arrival of the Financial Services and Markets Bill. It finally emerged on the hottest day ever recorded in the UK. Forming a significant slice of the Chancellor’s speech at Mansion House on July 19, it was given First Reading down the road in the House of ...

26 July 2022 /regulation

The Westminster Series: What to expect from the UK's BNPL regulation

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

The Westminster Series: What to expect from the UK's BNPL regulation

This week the government has published plans to strengthen regulation of the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) market. Key proposals have been set out in an HMT Consultation response, lenders will be required to carry out affordability checks and financial promotion rules will be amended to ensure BNPL advertisements are “fair, clear, and not misleading”. ...

22 June 2022 /regulation

The Westminister Series: What does the Queen’s Speech have in store for Fintech?

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

The Westminister Series: What does the Queen’s Speech have in store for Fintech?

The most obvious place to start is the Financial Services and Markets Bill, introduced to “strengthen the United Kingdom’s financial services industry, ensuring that it continues to act in the interest of all people and communities”. Financial services are vital to the UK economy, employing more than 2.3 million people across the UK, and contribut...

11 May 2022 /regulation

The Westminster Series: Lord Holmes on UK Fintech Week

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

The Westminster Series: Lord Holmes on UK Fintech Week

UK Fintech Week brings together the brightest and the best from the fintech ecosystem to discuss and debate crucial issues facing the sector and beyond. Themes this year are fintech hyper-growth and exits, investment trends and trade, Kalifa one year on, open finance, crypto and CBDCs, sustainable fintech and keeping up with regulation. UK Fintech...

31 March 2022 /regulation

The Westminster Series: For financial services, 2022 is a year of real regulatory possibilities

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

The Westminster Series: For financial services, 2022 is a year of real regulatory possibilities

Regulations can, and should, be positive. Clear and enabling growth in all its forms. So it can, and must, be for our financial services regulations. And what a year 2022 could be. Coming out of Covid, the next phase of the future regulatory framework review and all of that promise that future finance can bring, supported by the right sort of re...

24 February 2022 /regulation

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