The Bank of England (BoE) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have published a joint consultation paper CP24/5: Digital Securities Sandbox. The Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS) will allow participants to use developing technologies, such as Distributed Ledger Technology, to undertake the activities traditionally associated with Central Securities Depositories and Trading Venues. The deadline for responses is 29 May 2024.

The Bank of England (BoE) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have updated their UK EMIR reporting questions and answers (Q&A) to include Q&A 4.14 and 11.7, which provide guidance on the use of technical ISINs and FX swap reporting.

HM Treasury (HMT) has published a revised memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England (BoE) (exercising its prudential regulation functions). The MoU sets out the high-level framework the FCA and the BoE will use to co-ordinate and co-operate in carrying out their respective responsibilities.

The Bank of England (BoE) and HM Treasury (HMT) have published a joint progress update on the exploration of a digital pound. Although no decision has been made yet on whether to proceed with the digital pound, the design phase is currently underway. This phase will take into account developments in the wider payments landscape, and the BoE and Government will assess the policy case for the digital pound before making a decision. Regular future updates and design notes on specific topics related to the digital pound are expected to be published.

The Bank of England (BoE) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) have published their annual report for 2024/25 under the Prescribed Persons (Reports on Disclosures of Information) Regulations 2017. The report covers whistleblowing disclosures received between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025 and includes anonymised examples illustrating how disclosures informed supervisory approaches and regulatory compliance actions.

The Bank of England (BoE) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) have published a letter to PRA-regulated firms and financial market infrastructure firms (FMIs) following the 2024 Cyber Stress Test (CST24). The voluntary exercise asked participants to model the impact of a cyber-attack affecting transaction settlement, across three variations: (i) a suspected attack, (ii) a confirmed attack and (iii) a prolonged disruption. The test was designed to explore the operational, financial and confidence impacts of such an incident and to support firms in strengthening their operational resilience. The letter includes annexes with tools for identifying financial stability impacts, mitigation strategies and scenario severity amplifiers to support more robust resilience planning. The BoE encourages all firms to consider the materials and insights as part of their ongoing preparedness activities.

The Bank of England (BoE) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) have published a package of documents aimed at strengthening the UK’s prudential framework and supporting growth and competition, particularly for smaller and mid-sized firms. Under the proposals, the vast majority of Basel 3.1 (covering approximately 90% of risk-weighted assets in the UK) and the Strong and Simple capital regime will be implemented on 1 January 2027, and  the internal model approach for market risk under the Fundamental Review of the Trading Book (FRTB) will follow on 1 January 2028. The BoE also announced changes to the UK’s resolution framework, including raising the indicative thresholds for the minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) from £15–25bn to £25–40bn in total assets, with reviews every three years from 2028. The PRA has proposed increasing the Resolution Assessment Threshold from £50bn to £100bn in retail deposits.

The Bank of England (BoE) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) have published policy statement PS1/24, which sets out the revised approach to enforcement for both PRA firms and financial market infrastructure firms. This includes revisions to the procedures of the BoE’s Enforcement Decision Making Committee (EDMC). The revised policies set out a new path for early co-operation and greater incentives for early admissions with the aim of speeding up investigations in appropriate cases. PS1/24 further sets out the PRA’s policies and procedures for making supervisory and non-enforcement statutory notice decisions.

The Bank of England (BoE) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) have published an update on their strategic approach to artificial intelligence (AI) in response to a joint request from the economic secretary to the Treasury and City minister Bim Afolami and the secretary of state for science, innovation, and technology, Michelle Donelan.

The Bank of England (BoE) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) have published their annual report for 2023/24 under the Prescribed Persons (Reports on Disclosures of Information) Regulations 2017. The annual report covers all whistleblowing disclosures the BoE and PRA have received through the period of 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. The report states that BoE and PRA had 240 protected disclosures. The report also provides some anonymised examples of whistleblowing and what actions were taken by the BoE and PRA in response.

The Bank of England (BoE) has published details of its stress test of UK central counterparties (CCPs) for 2025. The exercise is designed to assess the financial resilience of UK CCPs under severe market stress. It focuses on the default of two or more clearing members—with particular emphasis on the two whose default would cause the greatest depletion of CCP resources—through a core Credit Stress Test, complemented by reverse and sensitivity testing. Although a full Liquidity Stress Test is not conducted, the exercise will include a qualitative exploration of liquidity risks. The BoE say that the test will cover all three authorised CCPs (ICE Clear Europe Limited, LCH Limited, and LME Clear Limited), use the end of day on Wednesday 26 March 2025 as the reference date, and rely on data submitted via structured templates. The results will be published in a report in Q4 2025.

The Bank of England (BoE) has announced that on 28 April 2025 the renewed real-time gross settlement (RTGS) model, known as RT2, went live. The BoE says RT2 will support its strategic objectives for RTGS and CHAPS and act as an open platform for change and innovation, ‘driving improvement in wholesale settlement efficiency and facilitating greater competition’.