Final report recommends the digitisation of UK shareholdings through a fully intermediated system of shareholding, with an interim phase of digitised share registers.
By Mark Austin CBE, James Inness, Anna Ngo, and Johannes Poon
On 15 July 2025, the Digitisation Taskforce, chaired by Sir Douglas Flint, published its final report, marking a significant milestone in the journey towards digitising the UK shareholding framework. Its findings have been welcomed by HM Treasury on behalf of the UK
The FCA sets the stage for a groundbreaking private-public crossover market with PISCES, embracing a “private-plus” approach.
By Mark Austin, James Inness, Rob Moulton, Anna Ngo, Koushik K. Prasad, Frederick Gardner, and Johannes Poon
On 10 June 2025, the FCA unveiled its final proposals for the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES), following a comprehensive consultation process. The proposals mark a significant step in the development of a regulated platform for trading private company shares, designed to operate within a sandbox environment for five years. The proposals aim to foster innovation and competition amongst a variety of PISCES models, while ensuring appropriate investor protections based on a “private-plus” approach.
The FCA published the proposals in Policy Statement P25/6. This policy statement follows the UK government’s statutory instrument, which was published on 15 May 2025 and sets out the legislative framework establishing the regulatory sandbox environment for the operation of PISCES for a five-year period.
The EU Listing Act reforms are leading to notable divergence between the EU and UK market abuse regimes, with key changes impacting disclosure requirements for issuers.
By Mark Austin, Nicola Higgs, James Inness, Rob Moulton, Anna Ngo, Jonathan Ritson-Candler, Charlotte Collins, and Johannes Poon
Until recently, the UK and EU post-Brexit market abuse regimes remained substantially aligned. However, the passing of the EU Listing Act reforms in 2024 has meant that UK and EU MAR have started to diverge meaningfully for the first time and we must now start to consider them as separate regimes. Although most of the changes to EU MAR took effect in late 2024, arguably the most impactful amendment (to when issuers need to announce inside information in certain circumstances) will not take effect until mid-2026. Generally, the EU Listing Act changes to EU MAR seek to reduce the regulatory burden for issuers and thereby make EU capital markets more attractive. Therefore, the amendments do not change the core offences under MAR or the definition of inside information, but rather aim to address some of the more onerous compliance aspects that issuers face and make these requirements more proportionate.
In this publication and podcast series, we explore some of the core focus areas for UK-regulated financial services firms in the year ahead.
In 2024, we saw disruption to the regulatory reform agenda as the unexpected timing of the general election impacted work and publication schedules. Now that the reform agenda is back on track and aligned to the new government’s plans for growth, we are likely to see improved progress on existing reforms as well as fresh initiatives in the pursuit of growth during 2025.
There is doubtless a strong focus on retail markets under the new government, but the UK’s competitiveness as a place to do business remains vital as improvements to the UK’s wholesale markets continue. ESG and AI continue to dominate across the sector as rapidly evolving areas that profoundly impact the regulatory landscape.
When the Edinburgh Reforms were announced on 9 December 2022, they were billed as an ambitious set of reforms. Two years on, we assess which of the measures have been completed, which remain outstanding, and whether they have delivered on the agenda set out.
We also reflect on the recent Mansion House announcements, which have reset the future of regulatory reform.
Significant concerns of many groups remain.
By Arthur S. Long, Roman Martinez, Pia Naib, and Jordan R. Goldberg
On September 10, 2024, Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr gave a speech (the Barr Speech) in which he outlined the principal changes that he would recommend to the full Board of Governors in a re-proposed rule to implement the Basel Endgame (the Re-Proposal).
The Basel Endgame would overhaul the methods by which large banking organizations
The world’s first regulated private/public crossover market is significantly redesigned as a friction-free “private up” rather than “public down” market with rethought approach to disclosure and market abuse.
By Mark Austin, Chris Horton, James Inness, Anna Ngo, Frederick Gardner, and Johannes Poon
On 14 November 2024, the UK government published its response to the March 2024 consultation on the UK’s proposed new regulated private/public crossover market, the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES).
The proposals seek to address engagement feedback which called for a more effective stewardship model that would support UK competitiveness and growth.
By Mark Austin, Chris Horton, James Inness, Anna Ngo, and Johannes Poon
On 11 November 2024, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) launched its consultation on proposed revisions to its Stewardship Code (the Code). The Code applies on a voluntary basis to its signatories which comprise asset owners, asset managers, proxy advisors, and investment consultants.
Recent reforms in the UK market have led to less prescriptive executive remuneration principles that encourage companies to tailor structures to their business, strategy, and performance while consulting with shareholders.
By Mark Austin, Kendall Burnett, Sarah Gadd, James Inness, Anna Ngo, and Johannes Poon
On 8 October 2024, the Investment Association (IA) updated its Principles of Remuneration (and supporting guidance) (the IA Principles), which predominantly apply to UK-listed companies. UK proxy advisors refer to the
The proposals form a package of measures designed to promote UK capital raising.
By Mark Austin, Chris Horton, James Inness, Anna Ngo, and Johannes Poon
On 26 July 2024, the FCA published consultation papers on a new public offers and admissions to trading regime to replace the existing UK Prospectus Regulation, and on proposals to establish public offer platforms (POPs) as a new mechanism for raising scale-up capital. These proposals form part of a package