The UK Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 aims to build a 'smarter regulatory framework' replacing existing retained EU law on financial services and markets and making other changes to update the UK regulatory regime.

The Act will revoke retained EU law on financial services and markets and give HM Treasury broad powers to make regulations restating and revising that law and designating additional activities for regulation in the UK. It will also make changes to the UK regulators’ objectives and the mechanisms for their accountability.

In addition, the Act will implement the outcomes of other reviews, including the reviews of the regulation of wholesale markets, financial market infrastructure, digital settlement assets, critical third-party service providers, financial promotions and access to cash and of the regimes for central counterparties and insurers in financial difficulties. It also will give HM Treasury new powers to implement mutual recognition arrangements with other countries and modify the rules for approving changes in control of authorised persons. The government has now published its more detailed plans for delivering the new framework using the powers under the Act, developing the proposals set out when the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced his ‘Edinburgh reforms’ in December 2022.

This briefing provides an overview of the Act and the main changes made to the UK financial regulatory system.

For more information on the changes made to the original Bill during the legislative process and the Edinburgh reforms, see our RegTalk blog, Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 – Key changes on the way to Royal Assent (June 2023), available here, and our briefings, UK Edinburgh Reforms – Impact on Financial Services (December 2022), and UK Edinburgh Reforms Six Months On (June 2023), available here and here.

Also see our Topic Guide, the UK Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, on the Clifford Chance Financial Markets Toolkit.

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