Supporting consumers and businesses 

Our Financial Education report published at the beginning of the month provides a review of financial services’ contribution to the financial education of children and young people in 2023. Specifically exploring how UK Finance members are supporting education providers, community leaders and parent carers to improve the financial literacy levels of all children and young people, including those that are in vulnerable circumstances, creating a generation who have the financial skills required for future financial stability, resilience and independence. 

We also released our ‘Homes We Need’ report which assesses the current state of our housing market and proposes actions to be taken by the government to address the UK’s 4.3 million housing shortfall.

Delivering a high growth economy 

Since April 2024 we have been working with 11 members and a number of other partners on a UK Regulated Liability Network (RLN) Experimentation Phase. This is a new type of financial market infrastructure that can deliver new capabilities for payments and settlement, including tokenisation and programmability. The successful outcomes are outlined on our website. 

This month the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) released its near final Policy Statement and Rulebook that will implement Basel 3.1 in the UK. We welcomed Phil Evans to UK Finance to discuss with members how the how the PRA took into account the concerns we raised in our response to its consultation in November 2022 and how its original proposals have been modified. Simon Hills, our Director Prudential Policy, shares insight into the balanced proposal in this blog post.

Keeping the financial system safe 

The Take Five to Stop Fraud team launched the ‘Stop Inn’, physical spaces for people to stop and use mind-reading technology to pour a drink. Featured in London, Manchester and Glasgow, these pop-up pubs had a twist – to pour a non-alcoholic drink members of the public had to take a moment, clear their mind and focus on what was in front of them. In the fight against fraud, the best defence is always to stop. Alongside the drink-pouring technology, Take Five’s message to Stop, Challenge and Protect was shared. They also issued a press release featuring new statistics outlining the heightening risk of falling victim to a scam in September and featured in The Independent and The Metro. 

On fraud prevention work, our latest data has shown a positive half year for the Banking Protocol rapid response scheme – an initiative launched by UK Finance, National Trading Standards and local police forces. The scheme trains bank staff to identify the warning signs that suggest a customer may be falling victim to a scam, before alerting their local police force to intervene and investigate. Despite a decrease in branches there has been a 7% increase in total calls received to law enforcement, 18% increase in the number of crimes reported and a 21% increase in the amount of money prevented from being stolen. This continues to highlight the importance and effectiveness of the banking protocol initiative and the continued great work and partnership between bank branches and law enforcement officers.

Transitioning to Net Zero 

Following the launch of the National Wealth Fund announced by the new government, we hosted a member roundtable with officials from HM Treasury (HMT) and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) to discuss how the sector can best support the financing of the transition to net zero. We continue to engage with the government on other key priorities such as home retrofit, transition finance and energy market reform. 

Ahead of the Autumn Budget next month, we’ve submitted on behalf of members key recommendations to help aid the transition to net zero. We called on the Government to: