Global Digital Finance (GDF) convened its UK Policy & Regulatory Working Group to respond to the HMT Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy Regulatory Environment – Cross-Cutting Reforms Consultation Paper.
GDF welcomes the opportunity to respond to HM Treasury’s consultation on competitiveness and growth. We strongly support the government’s focus on ensuring the UK remains an attractive and internationally competitive centre for financial services and innovation.
GDF and its members have remained consistently engaged with HM Treasury, the FCA, and the Bank of England throughout the development of the UK’s approach to digital assets. We welcome the emphasis on more efficient authorisation processes, proportionate supervisory timelines, and the introduction of long-term regulatory strategies as measures that will help firms scale, attract investment, and deliver innovation responsibly.
Against this backdrop, our response sets out several key points for consideration, focusing on authorisation timelines, variation of permissions, and the importance of long-term regulatory strategies. Key points raised in our response include:
1.Streamline and strengthen authorisation timelines: deliver shorter, risk-based statutory deadlines with tighter controls on “stop-the-clock” and earlier, consolidated feedback to reduce delays and enhance UK competitiveness.
2.Proportionate treatment for variations and senior manager approvals: adopt expedited processes for firms already known to the FCA, with risk-tiered timelines, fast-track routes for “known persons,” and greater use of digital triage.
3.Long-term strategies as living frameworks: require regulators to publish dynamic, digital-first strategies aligned with remit letters and national economic priorities, supported by transparency on resource use and efficiency.
4.Clarity, predictability and global alignment: ensure regulatory publications (consultations, business plans, guidance and letters) provide clear scope, timelines, and international comparability, while modernising rulemaking processes to be simpler, faster and digital-first.