FCA Director Calls for Reform of UK Public and Private Capital Markets at Industry Summit
Jon Relleen, director of infrastructure and exchanges at the Financial Conduct Authority, delivered a speech on 5 October 2026 at the Reform of the UK Public and Private Capital Markets Summit 2026 setting out the regulator's priorities for capital markets reform. According to a report by Regulation Tomorrow, the FCA has completed major elements of its reform programme. The speech addressed how UK public and private capital markets should be structured to work well for the broader economy. Separately, the HM Treasury payments services regulation consultation, which asked directly how regulation should adapt for agentic payments and what other innovations the government should account for, closed on 6 October 2026. The two developments together signal an active regulatory reset across UK financial markets infrastructure heading into the final quarter of 2026.
Why this matters
The FCA's public declaration that major reform elements are complete marks a staging post in the UK's post-Brexit effort to reposition London as a globally competitive listing venue. Regulatory completions at the FCA, combined with a closing HMT consultation on payments innovation including agentic payments, compress the legislative timeline for firms that need to adapt compliance frameworks. The convergence of capital markets reform and payments regulation in a single week signals that the UK is moving simultaneously on multiple fronts of financial services modernisation. Firms with London-listed clients or payment services authorisations face near-term obligation to assess the outputs of both workstreams.
On the Ground
Financial regulation and capital markets practices face immediate demand for advice on FCA reform implementation, particularly from issuers, exchanges, and intermediaries assessing updated listing and market-structure rules. The HMT payments consultation closure triggers a parallel workflow for fintech and payments clients digesting the government's emerging position on agentic payments. A trainee would be asked to monitor the FCA's follow-up publications post-speech, track the HMT consultation response timetable, and prepare a regulatory horizon memo flagging key dates for affected clients.
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“How should regulated firms prioritise their compliance resource given simultaneous FCA capital markets reform outputs and the HMT payments services consultation closing?”
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