Earlier today, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, unveiled the Edinburgh Reforms of UK financial services. The reform comes with a handful of refining focused on the UK financial sector.
Over 30 regulatory reforms were shared in an effort to unlock investment and boost economic growth in towns and cities across the UK. The reform included issuing a digital pound while experimenting with blockchain, promoting investment in crypto businesses, and maintaining the U.K. as one of the most competitive financial hubs in the world.
The Edinburgh Reforms to Ensure UK’s Financial Markets As One of The Most Competitive
The Chancellor’s 30-point Edinburgh Reforms is focused on unlocking investment and turbocharging growth across the U.K. Part of the plans set out to achieve this is to make a push for the UK’s financial sector to be at the forefront of innovation and overhaul the UK prospectus regime to make it more attractive for firms to list and raise capital.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, stated, “We are committed to securing the UK’s status as one of the most open, dynamic and competitive financial services hubs in the world. We will go further – delivering reform of burdensome EU laws that choke off growth in other industries such as digital technology and life sciences.”
The U.K. government is working on a plan to establish a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for the UK so as to harness the benefits of emerging technologies. According to the published reform, the U.K. CBDC could be the first move to see Brits using a digital pound.
Another aspect mentioned in the reform is the extension of Investment Management Exemption into crypto assets to enable foreign investment flow into the UK sector. In addition, the government has recommitted to establishing the Financial Markets Infrastructure Sandbox in 2023, authorizing companies and regulators to safely experiment, adopt and scale new technologies that could transform the U.K. financial markets.
“The UK is a financial services superpower – and we have long benefited from, and are committed to, high-quality regulatory standards,” said Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Andrew Griffith.
Griffith added, “Scotland’s role in maintaining our status as the global benchmark for regulation is crucial – with Edinburgh and Glasgow the two largest UK hubs outside of London. Our reforms deliver smarter regulation of financial services that will unlock growth and opportunity in towns and cities across the UK.”
