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Technology Circle Background

As regulatory thinking evolves, firms must ensure that any current or planned use of AI complies with regulatory expectations.

By Fiona M. Maclean, Becky Critchley, Gabriel Lakeman, Gary Whitehead, and Charlotte Collins

As financial services firms digest FS2/23, the joint Feedback Statement on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning issued by the FCA, Bank of England, and PRA (the regulators), and the UK government hosts the AI Safety Summit, we take stock of the government and the regulators’ thinking on AI to date, discuss what compliance considerations firms should be taking into account now, and look at what is coming next.

The FCA recently highlighted that we are reaching a tipping point whereby the UK government and sectoral regulators need to decide how to regulate and oversee the use of AI. Financial services firms will need to track developments closely to understand the impact they may have. However, the regulators have already set out how numerous areas of existing regulation are relevant to firms’ use of AI, so firms also need to ensure that any current use of AI is compliant with the existing regulatory framework.

Elisabeth Stheeman of the Financial Policy Committee outlined the new frameworks for building operational resilience against cyber risks and protection of payment chains.

By Brett Carr and Stuart Davis

On 9 September 2020, Elisabeth Stheeman, an External Member of the Financial Policy Committee (FPC) for the Bank of England (BoE) delivered a speech entitled, “The Financial ‘Plumbing’ Committee: from Plumbing to Policy” outlining the changes that financial services firms can expect in two priority areas — cyber and payments — in order to build operational resilience of the financial system.

Andrew Bailey outlined what payments market participants can expect from regulators seeking to address financial stability risk in the world of payments, including as part of the rise and adoption of global stablecoins.

By Brett Carr and Stuart Davis

On 3 September 2020, the Governor of the Bank of England (BoE) Andrew Bailey delivered a speech “Reinventing the Wheel (with more automation)”, in which he outlined regulatory changes that payments market participants can expect, including as part of the global regulatory response to stablecoins.

Bank for International Settlements selects Bank of England as UK centre to host new fintech hub.

By Stuart Davis, Brett Carr, and Sam Maxson

On 30 June 2020, the Bank of England announced that it had been selected to host a centre of the Bank for International Settlements’ Innovation Hub. The UK centre will support the global central banking and finance community through the development of digital public goods.

The BoE is seeking feedback on the Introductory Phase of the ISO 20022 migration, that will create a common language for payments data globally.

By Christian F. McDermott, Grace E. Erskine, and Amy Smyth

In 2018, the Bank of England (BoE) consulted on the adoption of ISO 20022 — a global standard for payments messaging — for the payments industry in the UK. In response to consultation feedback and market developments such as SWIFT and the European Central Bank’s requirement that ISO 20022 messaging begin in November 2021, the BoE is now seeking further feedback from interested parties. The BoE’s latest consultation focuses on the Introductory Phase of the CHAPS ISO 20022 migration, specifically the early adoption of “enhanced” data. Feedback must be submitted by 16 October 2019. The BoE has set out two options for the implementation of the Introductory Phase:

UK regulators are addressing regulatory uncertainty through a number of regulatory initiatives due for implementation in 2019.

By Stuart Davis

Background

Following the FCA’s consultation paper that offers guidance on the regulatory status of cryptoassets published in January 2019, the regulator is now engaging with the industry and other stakeholders such as law firms to finalise its guidance.

The consolidation of UK payment system operators marks another big step in delivering on the New Payments Architecture.

By Stuart Davis and Brett Carr

What happened?

Operational responsibility for the Bacs and Faster Payments systems, which process a combined £6.3 trillion worth of payments annually, has transferred to the New Payment System Operator (NPSO).

The successful consolidation of the operators (and planned consolidation of the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company in late 2018) has been a key focus for both the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) and the Bank of England.

Bank of England announces that, for the first time, a non-bank payment services provider has accessed the UK payments system directly.

By Andrew Moyle, Stuart Davis, Charlotte Collins, and Brett Carr

The Bank of England has announced that a regulated payment services provider (PSP) has become the first non-bank direct participant in the UK’s Faster Payments system. This was facilitated by the Bank of England extending settlement account access in its Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system to non-bank PSPs, which was announced in July 2017 (see Latham’s related blog post). This change enabled non-bank PSPs to access the UK payment schemes that settle in central bank money directly for the first time, rather than needing to “plug in” to these systems indirectly via settlement agent banks.

By Andrew Moyle, Stuart Davis, Fiona Maclean, Christian McDermott and Charlotte Collins

The Bank of England (BoE) announced on 19 July 2017 that it is extending direct access to its real-time gross settlement (RTGS) service to non-bank payment service providers (i.e., e-money institutions and payment service providers that do not have regulatory permissions to carry out the “core” banking activity of taking deposits), subject to appropriate safeguards.

For the first time, non-banks will be able to apply for a settlement account with the BoE, providing direct access to the UK’s sterling payment systems that settle in sterling central bank money, including Faster Payments, Bacs, CHAPS, LINK, Visa, and, once live, the new digital cheque imaging system.