Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2023

Considered in Grand Committee

Moved by

That the Grand Committee do consider the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2023.

My Lords, these two instruments make updates to financial services regulation to ensure that it remains effective following the passage of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, which I will refer to as FSMA 2023.

The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Benchmarks and Capital Requirements) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 make two targeted changes to financial services retained EU law or REUL. FSMA 2023 repeals REUL in financial services, allowing the Government to deliver a smarter regulatory framework for the UK with regulation designed specifically for UK markets and consumers.

The repeal of each individual piece of REUL will be commenced once the Government and the regulators have made appropriate arrangements to replace it with UK rules or determined that no replacement is needed. Until financial services REUL has been fully replaced, FSMA 2023 ensures that it can be kept up to date through a power to modify REUL before its repeal takes effect.

The first change made by the instrument reintroduces a discount factor into the UK Capital Requirements Regulations. The discount factor reduces the amount of capital that small and medium-sized financial services firms are required to hold for certain derivatives activity.

The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee raised this SI as an instrument of interest, noting the timeline of the original removal of the discount factor from UK legislation and the Government’s policy on mirroring changes in EU law. The Government removed the discount factor in April 2021 through the Financial Services Act 2021. The EU also removed the discount factor from its version of the Capital Requirements Regulations at that stage before reintroducing it later that year. The Government do not have a policy of mirroring EU law and, through the smarter regulatory framework, will tailor regulation to the UK. After industry raised concerns with the Government about the removal of the discount factor, we acted swiftly to reinstate it through this instrument. This will provide certainty to firms and align regulation to best practice globally.

The instrument also amends Article 51(5) of the benchmarks regulation to extend the transitional period for the third-country benchmarks regime to the end of 2030. Thanks to the transitional period currently in effect, UK users of benchmarks have access to non-UK benchmarks. The third-country regime, once it takes effect, would require administrators of those benchmarks to pass through one of the three access routes—equivalence, recognition or endorsement—for UK users to rely on them. There is a variety of issues with the third-country regime as originally drafted in the EU. For example, some third-country benchmarks are provided on a non-commercial basis, and administrators may therefore lack the economic incentives to come through these access routes. If the transitional period were to end with the third-country regime in its current form, many administrators may be unable or unwilling to use this regime for continued UK market access. Losing access to these third-country benchmarks could undermine the UK’s position as the centre for global foreign exchange and derivatives markets and have further repercussions given the widespread use of third-country benchmarks by UK firms.

The second SI—the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2023—makes a number of consequential amendments arising from FSMA 2023. First, it makes consequential changes that are needed as a result of the repeal of a number of pieces of retained EU law. The repeals in question will take effect at the end of the year. Secondly, it updates a cross-reference in FSMA 2023 to align the Bank of England’s reporting requirements with its remit and responsibilities. Thirdly, it amends the Payment Card Interchange Fee Regulations 2015 to ensure that the Payment Systems Regulator effectively co-operates with other regulators under a new direction power provided by FSMA 2023. These are consequential changes that ensure the continuing functioning of the statute book following the passage of FSMA 2023.

Together, these SIs deliver important changes to ensure that the financial services regulatory framework continues to function effectively for consumers and businesses alike. I beg to move.

My Lords, we have no comment to make on the second statutory instrument in this group, except to say that we agree with what the Minister said during the debate in the Commons that for the entirely consequential changes brought about by this instrument “consequential” means “necessarily following on from” not “of consequence”.

We support this instrument, but we have a little more to say about the first. As a mathematician by education, I should start by saying how pleased I was to see e—Euler’s number, the base of natural logarithms —make an important appearance on page 2 of the instrument, albeit without any explanation at all for the reader of what it might mean. I think that may be rather odd.

The EM explains that the discount factor—a means of reducing the amount of capital that small and medium-sized firms hold for their trading and derivative activities—was removed in error from the capital requirements regulation, both here and in the EU. Reinstating it via this SI will help ensure that the UK remains competitive with other jurisdictions. We entirely support this remedial measure but note the SLSC’s comments about the matter. The Minister has already mentioned some of them.

The question really is: how is it that the mistake, and it was a mistake, was introduced into the UK after it had already been corrected in the EU? Does this not suggest incompetence or, at the very least, insufficient awareness of relevant activity in key trading partners? What steps has the Treasury taken to eliminate this kind of error?

We also support the extension of the transitional period for third-country benchmark regimes for five years to 31 December 2030. As the Minister said, if we were to lose access to these third-country benchmarks, it could weaken our position as a centre for global FE and derivatives. This SI gives us six years to sort out a new regime, as I believe the EU is also contemplating.

My Lords, overall, we agree with these regulations. When the first of these two grouped SIs was debated in the House of Commons, my honourable friend Tulip Siddiq, the shadow Economic Secretary, posed two questions to the Minister. Unfortunately, he did not address either of them in his response, so I will ask them again today. Of course, the noble Baroness is welcome to write with an answer, if that is preferable.

The two questions are on changes to capital requirements. First, given that the Prudential Regulation Authority is proposing to remove the SME supporting factor when it confirms its final rule, are the Government not reintroducing a measure that the PRA plans subsequently to abolish? Secondly, if the PRA goes ahead with its plan, what reassurance can the Government provide that the UK’s SME lending market will not be left at a significant competitive disadvantage against its European counterparts due to the increased cost of capital?

The noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, asked about the reintroduction of a discount factor, which was mentioned by the Minister in her opening remarks. I note that the discount factor was previously “unintentionally” removed from the relevant regulation in both the UK and the EU. I also note that the discount factor was removed from UK law in January 2022, and that this was identified as an issue only 18 months later, in July 2023. However, apparently, the factor was reinstated by the EU into its own laws four months prior to it being unintentionally removed from UK law back in September 2021. As the noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, observed, it is odd that a mistake was introduced in the UK after it had already been corrected in the EU. The Minister is clearly correct to note that the UK does not mirror changes to EU law post Brexit, but does she think that keeping up to date with developments in the EU, where parallel measures remain part of UK legislation, could help to ensure that avoidable errors such as this do not occur?

Once again, I am grateful to both noble Lords for their contributions to this short debate. I will write further on what the noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, said about the formula—it is not that complicated; I am an engineer by training, and it is not beyond the wit of man to understand this. But we might provide a little more explanation in due course.

I am not sure I can say much more about the timing of the removal and reintroduction of the discount factor. It is not a particularly widely used element within the system, and therefore the industry took a while to notice that the change had happened. Obviously, there are lessons to be learned in these circumstances, and we moved to reintroduce it as quickly as we could. Of course, the regulators are well aware of what happened. I am grateful to noble Lords that we are able to get it back on to the statute book today.

That brings me on to the various discussions we have with the EU, as close trading partners. The noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, asked what changes will be next. There will be potential changes to the third-country benchmarks regime, but that is in the context of much wider changes within the smarter regulatory framework, so the repeal of each piece of retained EU law will be commenced once appropriate arrangements are in place with the UK rules—or, as I said in my opening remarks, when the Treasury has determined that no replacement is needed. Alongside that, we are delivering our smarter regulatory framework in order to replace retained EU law as necessary.

It will be a carefully planned and phased approach. We believe that we have given ourselves sufficient breathing room by making the transitional period last until 2030. It may be that we need all that time, or it may not, but we want to make sure that it fits into the wider reform of the programme to ensure that we prioritise those things that we feel are needed first in order to benefit our very successful financial services sector. Of course, we continue to have enduring and sensible dialogue and co-operation with other jurisdictions, including the EU. For example, on 19 October, the Treasury hosted the first joint EU-UK financial regulatory forum, which welcomed participants from not only the European Commission but UK and EU regulators to discuss common issues. It is clear that the UK and the EU regulatory frameworks will change over time and ultimately remain the autonomous concern of the respective parties, but it is also important that we discuss changes for the benefit of sharing our understanding.