Queen's Speech December 2019 - Financial services legislation

Financial services legislation

“My ministers will bring forward legislation to ensure the United Kingdom’s exit on that date and to make the most of the opportunities that this brings for all the people of the United Kingdom.”

The purpose of the legislation is to:

● Ensure that the UK maintains its world-leading regulatory standards and remains open to international markets after we leave the EU.

The main benefits of the legislation would be:

• ●  Supporting the UK’s position as an international financial services centre.

• ●  Enhancing the competitiveness of the UK’s financial services sector, while maintaining high standards to protect UK consumers so that they can use financial services products with confidence.

• ●  The Government will set out further measures to ensure the UK maintains its world- leading regulatory standards and remains open to international markets after we leave the EU in due course.

  The main elements of the legislation are:

• ●  Delivering our commitment for long-term market access between the UK and Gibraltar for financial services firms.

• ●  Simplifying the process which allows overseas investment funds to be sold in the UK to maintain our position as a centre of asset management and provide more choice to UK consumers, in line with commitments made during our preparations for leaving the EU.

• ●  Enable us to implement the Basel standards to strengthen the regulation of global banks, in line with previous G20 commitments.

  Territorial extent and application:

● The legislation’s provisions would extend and apply to the whole of the UK. Fiscal, economic and monetary policy is a reserved matter.

Key facts:

● The financial services sector is critical to the UK economy:

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• ○  It employs more than 1 million people across regional hubs in all four of our nations.

• ○  It contributes more than £127 billion to our national economy per year.

• ○  Our financial services trade surplus is over £61 billion.

• ●  This legislation will build on the extensive secondary legislation that the Government brought forward under the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 to ensure the effective operation of retained EU law, and thereby support the financial services sector.

• ●  Key recent steps taken by the Government to support the financial services sector include:

  ○ Reforming the previous financial services regulatory architecture which failed during the 2008 financial crisis, through the creation of new ‘twin peaks’ system.

  ○ Promoting competition by making it easier to switch banks and encouraging new banks.

  ○ Ensuring the UK is a world leader in FinTech through the Sector Strategy.

  ○ Ensuring the financial services sector helps meet the government’s commitments on climate change.

• ●  The Government will also continue to progress legislation to combat money laundering and achieve greater transparency in the UK property market (the Registration of Overseas Entities Bill).