BoE publishes fundamental rules for FMIs

Following its November 2024 consultation, the Bank of England (BoE) has published final fundamental rules for financial market infrastructure firms (FMIs), a supervisory statement setting out how the BoE expects FMI to comply with the rules and a final policy statement providing its responses to the feedback to the November proposals. FMIs include central counterparties (CCPs), central securities depositories (CSDs) and recognised payment system operators. The final rules take effect on 18 July 2026. In response to consultation feedback, the BoE makes refinements to the policy which include:

• Clarification that FMIs are not expected to take actions to mitigate systemic risk if doing so would compromise their own resilience.
• Increased emphasis on the importance of transparency between FMIs with their participants to enhance effective risk management.
• Clarification on the application of the fundamental rules to activities conducted at the group level.

The BoE has also acknowledged receipt of HM Treasury's letter of recommendations, dated 1 July, to the Financial Market Infrastructure Committee and confirms that, although the consultation predated the letter, the final policy aligns with the recommendations, particularly in supporting UK financial stability and fostering innovation in FMIs.

The final requirements are set out in: (i) the BoE FMI Rulebook: Fundamental Rules for UK Central Counterparties and UK Central Securities Depositories Instrument 2025; (ii) the BoE Recognised Payment Systems Fundamental Rules Code Of Practice; and (iii) the Fundamental Rules for FMIs: supervisory statement.

On the same day, the BoE has also published its supervisory approach to onboarding new FMIs that fall within its regulatory remit. The BoE articulates how its supervisory approach applies from the initial risk assessment before regulatory approval, to granting approval and then mobilisation and scaling. Separately, it issued a consultation paper on proposed rules for ensuring the resilience of CCPs, which are intended to replace the current requirements applicable to CCPs under UK European Market Infrastructure Regulation Titles III-V. To align with the terminology used in that consultation, the BoE has updated its references to "third-country CCPs" to "overseas CCPs" within the fundamental rules policy.

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