Post Brexit, the UK wants to “renew [its] position as the world’s pre-eminent financial centre”.

This consultation follows a previous one (in October 2020).

It include changes to the regulators’ statutory objectives and enhanced mechanisms for accountability, scrutiny and oversight of the regulators by Parliament, HM Treasury and stakeholders. It also sets out how we intend to return responsibility for designing and implementing regulatory requirements to the UK regulators, a break from the approach under EU law.

The Proposal seeks 3 primary objectives:

1) Deal with Retained EU Law and with modifications or departures from the previous regulations under the EU membership

2) Address the objective of the UK government to provide for a greater focus on growth and competitiveness by introducing new, statutory secondary objectives for the PRA and the FCA. This growth objective is not as explicit a mandate for ESMA, the EU regulator which is the mirror of the FCA.

3) The translation of such a growth objective is complemented by Net Zero targets, as expressed in paragraph 11 of the executive summary: “The government also proposes to amend the existing regulatory principles to ensure that sustainable growth should occur in a way that is consistent with the government’s commitment to achieve a net zero economy by 2050”.

 

HM Treasury Consultation document: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1032075/FRF_Review_Consultation_2021_-_Final_.pdf