Chancellor of the Exchequer (): Last night I delivered my
annual Mansion House speech at the Financial and Professional
Services Dinner at Mansion House.
In my speech, I announced a package of further reforms to unlock
investment across the country, increase access to finance for
growing businesses and position the UK at the forefront of
financial innovation.
The Government welcomed the outcomes of the Financial Policy
Committee's Bank Capital Review, including reforms to the
leverage framework and capital buffers that support lending while
maintaining resilience. It has also published consultations on
ring-fencing reforms, including a New Growth Allowance for
ring-fenced banks that could unlock up to £80 billion of
financing for UK businesses, as announced in May. The Government
has also welcomed new figures from the Association of British
Insurers showing that UK life insurers have invested £16.8
billion in UK productive assets between 2024 and the end of the
first half of 2025, putting the sector on track to meet its
pledge to invest £100 billion in UK productive assets over 10
years.
The Government has expanded the Growth Guarantee Scheme to
facilitate around £3.35 billion of small and medium-sized
enterprise lending per year by 2028-29. It also confirms that it
will make up to £500 million of British Business Bank ENABLE
Guarantee capacity available for lending to innovative and
intellectual property-rich firms; and announced a new UK Export
Finance guarantee product, delivered in partnership with the
British Business Bank, to support smaller businesses that are
exporting or looking to begin exporting. It is also building on
nearly £120 million already committed through the British
Business Bank's Community ENABLE Funding programme, with a new
ambition to scale the programme to at least £500 million over the
next five years.
The Wholesale Digital Markets Champion, Chris Woolard CBE, has
published his first report on tokenisation, which will help to
drive a cross sectoral approach to digitalising UK markets. The
Government has confirmed its intention to issue the first Digital
Gilt Instrument no later than the first quarter of 2027, and
intends to prepare for potential further issuances, subject to
the success of the first transaction. The Bank of England has
approved the first firm to undertake live activity in the Digital
Securities Sandbox, and the Dematerialisation Market Action
Taskforce has published its implementation plan for removing
paper shares by the end of 2027. The Government has also set out
progress on cryptoasset and stablecoin regulation, including
final rules from the Bank of England and Financial Conduct
Authority, and has published updates to tax rules to facilitate
the use of stablecoins and certain cryptoasset loans and
liquidity pools. The Government has published a consultation on
modernising payment services regulation, and welcomed the
Financial Services AI Adoption Plan, authored by the Financial
Services AI Champions Harriet Rees and Dr Rohit Dhawan which sets
out practical recommendations to accelerate safe and responsible
AI adoption across the sector. Finally, the Government has
committed to consult on an Open Finance regulatory framework in
2027 focused on small and medium-sized enterprise lending.
We are building on the UK's global strength through deeper
international partnerships and improved market access. This
includes increased regulatory cooperation with the European Union
on financial services, focused on improving oversight and
reducing burdens for firms in areas such as transaction
reporting, and working together on emerging challenges such as
the green and digital transitions. The joint UK and United States
Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future has committed
to publishing its report, which sets out recommendations to
advance UK-US financial services collaboration, focusing on
digital assets and capital markets. This sits alongside wider
progress on financial services agreements and engagement with
partners including Switzerland, India, the Republic of Korea, the
Gulf Cooperation Council and China.
The Government has published One Year On: Delivering the
Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy,
which draws together progress in the last year across all six
themes of the Strategy, and demonstrates the impact those reforms
are having.
Together, these reforms will unlock more investment, improve
access to finance for growing businesses, support innovation and
strengthen the UK's position as a leading global financial
centre.
The full list of the measures launched at Mansion House, along
with supporting technical documents, can be found on GOV.UK
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/mansion-house-2026
