It’s been quite a month for elections in Europe, but in this episode, Regulatory Intelligence’s Lindsey Rogerson, Mike Cowan, and Rachel Wolcott pick out what financial services should be aware of after the Labour party’s win in the UK election on July 5.
The financial services sector certainly will play a part in Labour’s growth plans. The party’s financial services plan, published in January said: “We will unashamedly champion our financial services sector as one of the UK’s greatest assets.”
Rachel Reeves, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer and the first woman to hold the post in 800 years, has been warmly received by women working in Britain’s finance sector. Her appointment as well as the increase in diversity in members of parliament across all parties was called a break-through moment at this week’s Women in Finance summit held in London. Tulip Siddiq was appointed as City Minister as the podcast was going to press. She had been Labour’s shadow City Minister since 2021.
On July 8 Reeves told an audience of financial services and green industry leaders that economic growth is a national mission. She also announced Labour will go ahead with a national wealth fund with a remit to invest in and catalyse private sector investment in new and growing industries.
This discussion was recorded on 8th July, things will change when the government gets going with its first King’s Speech setting out its legislative agenda and announces its budget in the fall. There will be a wait to hear whether the new government prioritizes crypto and pushes forward with that regulatory workstream, where it lands on economic crime and how it will push forward the green finance agenda as well as changes to the car insurance market—to name but a few items in its bulging inbox.
Perhaps the biggest question now, however, is whether the government will do something for financial services when it comes to doing business with the European Union.
Links
Labour’s financing growth plan: https://labour.org.uk/updates/stories/financing-growth-labours-plan-for-financial-services/
UK Finance publishes financial services manifesto: https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/news-and-insight/press-release/uk-finance-publishes-financial-services-manifesto
Contact us:
Rachel.Wolcott@thomsonreuters.com, Lindsey.Rogerson@thomsonreuters.com, mike.cowan@thomsonreuters.com.


Compliance Clarified is a podcast from Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence.
Listen to wide-ranging, insightful discussions on all things compliance for financial services firms. We delve into the hot topics of the day, the challenges faced and offer up practical ideas for emerging good practice. We de-mystify regulation and explore the art, as well as the science, of the ever-expanding role of the compliance officer.  Enforcements, digital transformation, regulatory change, governance, culture, conduct risk – anything and everything impacting the compliance function is up for discussion.