King's speech 2026: financial services

The King's speech was delivered to Parliament, setting out a number of legislative measures relevant to financial services and the wider economic regulatory framework. The speech is accompanied by briefing notes, which outline the legislation to be brought forward. In the context of financial services, one of the bills announced is the Enhancing Financial Services Bill.

Key measures under this include:

• Reforming the UK Financial Ombudsman Service, as confirmed by HM Treasury (HMT) in its March consultation response to modernise the financial redress system.
• Abolition of the UK Payment Systems Regulator and integration into the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), as confirmed by HMT in its April consultation response.
• Reducing administrative burden in the Senior Managers and Certification Regime, as confirmed by HMT in its April consultation response.
• Enabling credit unions to expand, as confirmed by HMT in its March call for evidence response on reforms to the credit union framework.
• Updating the statutory framework underpinning the ring-fencing regime, as part of HMT's Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy published in July 2025. The strategy mentioned the regime would be reviewed, with a report expected in early 2026.

Other bills also relevant to financial services include the Small Business Protections (Late Payments) Bill, which seeks to address late payments from business to small and medium-sized enterprises; its measures apply only to UK-to-UK business transactions and do not affect global supply chains or international trade. The Digital Access to Services Bill will introduce a digital identity framework intended to modernise how citizens interact with public services. In addition, the government highlighted plans to strengthen trading relationships with the EU through a proposed European Partnership Bill.

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