The Financial Conduct Authority has said innovation is now a structural pillar of the UK’s capital‑markets reform agenda, with tokenisation, digital infrastructure and new market models becoming central to how markets evolve.
Speaking at the Reform of the UK Public and Private Capital Markets Summit, Jon Relleen, the FCA’s director of infrastructure and exchanges, said the regulator’s multi‑year overhaul is designed to support informed risk‑taking, modernise market plumbing and prepare markets for digital issuance.
Relleen said the FCA has completed major elements of a multi‑year programme to make UK markets more effective, competitive and attractive, but emphasised that the next phase of reform will be defined by how well markets adopt new technologies.
“Areas such as tokenisation, AI and markets for trading private company shares have become central to our capital markets policy programme,” he said, adding that innovation is now embedded rather than experimental.
A core part of that shift is the Digital Securities Sandbox, developed with the Bank of England and Treasury, which will support the issuance of the UK’s first digital gilt early next year. The FCA has also worked with industry on rules for tokenised investment funds, enabling the launch of the UK’s first fully‑native tokenised fund, and has helped shape the regulatory framework for stablecoins. Relleen said these initiatives are intended to give firms the confidence to move beyond pilots and demonstrate commercial use.
The regulator’s broader reforms have already reshaped primary and secondary markets. Changes to the listing regime have reduced costs for issuers and supported a rise in capital raising, while transparency improvements — including the launch of the UK’s first bond consolidated tape — have increased real‑time visibility of trading activity. New venues for private‑company share trading, such as PISCES, are also beginning to take hold.
Relleen said the FCA will publish a joint roadmap in the coming weeks setting out how wholesale markets will adapt as tokenisation and digitalisation accelerate. He stressed that competitiveness will come from maintaining high standards while enabling informed risk‑taking, not from weakening market integrity.
“Our objective is to ensure that our regulatory framework can adapt as markets evolve,” he said.
