UK financial services regulation is entering a critical delivery phase, and the sector can't afford to get it wrong. In this episode, Alex Ellerton, Head of Financial Services, and Chris Laverty, Head of Financial Services Restructuring, are joined Bob Wigley, UK Finance Chair, to unpack three of the biggest questions facing UK banking right now.
Contents
The conversation covers whether the UK capital regime and leverage ratio rules are still fit for a growth economy, why 2026 could be the year tokenisation and digital assets move from pilot to mainstream, and what genuine AI governance looks like inside a regulated bank, not just the largest institutions, but the mid-market and challenger banks carrying the same regulatory weight without the same balance sheet scale.
Other topics also include:
- UK Finance's plan for growth
- PRA capital requirements
- Smart contracts in real-world asset settlement,
- AI governance in lending and credit risk
- What regulatory change means for banks, building societies and specialist lenders navigating growth and regulation at the same time.
For banking, payments, insurance and investment management leaders tracking UK financial services regulation, this is a grounded look at where policy is heading and what it means for delivery.
Authors
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Alex Ellerton
Alex Ellerton - I advise clients across the retail financial services sector on regulatory matters. With a particular focus on banking, lending, wealth management and retail intermediary firms, I regularly work with senior management teams to identify practical and proportionate responses to regulatory challenges.View Profile -
Chris Laverty
I am a senior restructuring practitioner working with both public and private boards, lenders/funders to advise and implement financial restructurings.View Profile -
Bob Wigley
Bob Wigley spent his banking career with Morgan Grenfell and Merrill Lynch and was EMEA Chairman of Merrill Lynch between 2003 and 2009. Between 2006 and 2009 he was a member of the Court of the Bank of England. He is a past member of the Takeover Panel, the FSA’s Senior Practitioners Panel and was the FSA’s nominated representative on the Council of European Securities Regulators Market Consultation Panel.View profile