Supporting consumers and businesses  

Following the recent Mansion House announcements, we have been working closely with government to input into the National Payments Vision. We are pleased to see many of our industry asks included and look forward to working with the government on delivering real change in payments. 

Our Capital Markets and Wholesale policy team met with MPs in Parliament to speak about the role of capital markets in supporting pensions. The need to ensure our domestic capital can work alongside international capital to fuel growth in companies investing in the UK and the role of financial education in fostering an investment culture across society is key.

In our latest UK Cash and Cash Machines 2024 report, we published a detailed analysis of how and where the public obtained and spent cash in the UK during 2023. This included an analysis of cash machines in the UK, as well as forecasts for how cash use will change over the next decade and comparisons with other countries.

We released our latest Arrears and possessions data for Q3 2024, including trends in arrears and possessions of property linked to first charge mortgages provided by members. 

Delivering a high growth economy 

In July, the Bank of England launched a Discussion Paper on Innovation in Money and Payments covering topics in retail and wholesale payments. This month we published our response to this, outlining key outcomes and underpinnings for the ‘rails and trains’ of payments and set out how to build an effective National Payments Vision & Strategy.

This month we ran our Regulated Liability Network (RLN) hackathon. We had 15 teams who each prototyped their own business apps on top of the 'platform for innovation’ that was developed during our UK RLN Experimentation Phase. By providing industry participants with the opportunity to build new use cases that utilised the RLN platform, this event was a key example of how the programmability of money can transform the way value and assets are transferred and managed. In our LinkedIn post we share more about the winning team, Kaleido, and ‘runners-up; Commerzbank AG and SETL.

Keeping the financial system safe 

Our Economic Crime Team had great success at this year’s Tackling Economic Crime Awards (TECA). Nominated in four categories, Christine Farrow, Principal – APP Fraud Strategic Lead, won the ‘Outstanding Individual Contribution to Tackling Economic Crime’.

As part of our efforts to work with the Tech and Telcommunications sectors to ensure they play their part in tackling fraud, mobile network trade body GSMA and UK Finance joined forces to launch Scam Signal. A new scalable and standardised solution to help prevent Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud by enabling banks to better identify and stop fraudulent bank transfers using real-time mobile network data. A successful three-month pilot project resulted in scam detection improving by 30 per cent at a major UK bank.

This month our Don't Be Fooled, Money Mules, schools programme launched a new set of adapted school resources for students with SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) who may be more susceptible to becoming money mules. Alongside the resources we carried out targeted promotional activity aimed at trade media and teachers to drive awareness and usage of the resources. Follow up influencer activity will take place at the end of November, and we are working with Young Enterprise to obtain the Quality Mark for the resources.

Transitioning to Net Zero 

In the UK Autumn Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced £1 billion to go towards the government's Warm Homes Plan next year and guaranteed an initial £3.4 billion investment towards heat decarbonisation and household energy efficiency over 2025-28. These results were in line with our Budget submission so we welcomed these commitments. We continue to call on the government to deliver a fuller policy to ensure that homeowners can access the finance they need to retrofit their homes. Find out more in our latest blog post. 

UK Finance was represented at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. As sponsors of the Sustainable Innovation Forum side event, we co-hosted a roundtable event with the RMI and our members on how banks can navigate and influence the net zero policy landscape. Following the UK prime minister’s NDC announcement that the UK is to cut emissions by 81 per cent compared with 1990 levels by 2035, we called for further detail to support the financial services sector in financing this important commitment. 

We welcomed the government's announcement made at Mansion House to publish a consultation gathering views on the use cases and value of a UK Green Taxonomy as part of a wider sustainable finance framework – a key win to ensure that any future taxonomy works for the sector. We strongly support the government's commitment to implementing international sustainability reporting standards, and welcome plans to consult openly on transition plan requirements. 

Upcoming events and training

11 December - Mortgage Dinner 

We have just released a few more tickets for the Mortgage Dinner on 11 December. Don't miss the chance to network with over 400 senior figures from across the mortgage industry and celebrate the year's achievements, book your place.

12 December - Economic Crime Congress

Our 2024 Economic Crime Congress takes place on 12 December. This year we will continue to bring together key figures from the industry to discuss our shared economic crime priorities. Join us as over 70 industry speakers dive into today’s most pressing topics, from financial crime to intelligence, innovation, fraud and sanctions. Book your ticket and find out more.

2025 UK Finance events  

Join us next year for an exciting event line-up. We’ll be providing opportunities to meet peers, network and celebrate as well as staying informed on the latest developments, and sharing the achievements shaping our sector. 
 
We are offering 2024 prices for any event that is booked before 14 February. Simply register your interest and we will be in touch with your limited time offer.