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

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wms/?id=2026-07-15.hcws257.0