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From FCA crypto authorisation to tokenisation and faster settlement, the next year brings important developments for fintech founders and in-house legal teams. Here’s what to watch and where to start preparing.
Building a fintech business means getting comfortable with change. Keeping up with every regulatory announcement, though, could quite easily become a full-time job. And you probably already have one of those.
Between now and September 2027, several developments could influence the products you launch, the customers you serve and the infrastructure your business relies on.
This UK fintech regulation outlook focuses on capital markets, digital assets, market data and financial infrastructure. It also looks at selected international developments that could affect UK businesses.
For founders, leadership teams and general counsel, the useful question is: what needs to go into our business plan now?
The UK’s new cryptoasset regime is one of the biggest developments on the calendar.
The FCA’s application period opened on 30th September 2026 and closes on 28th February 2027, ahead of the new regime’s expected commencement on 25th October 2027. Activities covered include qualifying stablecoin issuance, operating cryptoasset trading platforms, dealing and arranging, safeguarding cryptoassets and arranging staking.
If your business could be affected, start by understanding how the framework applies to what you actually do. That includes products already available and those on your roadmap.
Regulatory perimeter advice can help identify which activities require permission. FCA authorisation legal support can then help connect that assessment with the governance, systems, resources and commercial arrangements needed to support an application.
There may be dependencies to work through first: a supplier contract to update, a key hire to make or a control to implement. Those belong in the project plan early.
Tokenisation remains an important theme for businesses developing digital assets and financial infrastructure.
The government is targeting issuance of its Digital Gilt Instrument, or DIGIT, by Q1 2027. The pilot includes planned connectivity between HSBC Orion and LSEG’s digital securities infrastructure, putting interoperability firmly on the agenda.
For businesses building tokenised products, the practical questions extend well beyond creating the token.
What does the holder legally own? How can those rights be transferred? Who holds the underlying asset? How do custody, payment and settlement arrangements fit together?
Getting tokenisation legal advice during product development can help identify whether the proposed structure supports the experience you want to offer customers.
Bring legal, product and operations into the same conversation. Mapping the asset, the rights and the movement of money is a useful starting point.
Stablecoins connect payments, digital assets and settlement infrastructure. Their relevance extends to issuers, custodians, platforms and businesses considering how to integrate them into a service.
The Bank of England and FCA are developing their respective frameworks, including joint oversight of systemic stablecoin issuers. The detail of those frameworks will remain important over the year ahead.
For businesses exploring stablecoins, the regulatory analysis needs to start with the proposed role and use case.
Issuing a token, safeguarding it and integrating it into a payment arrangement can raise different questions. International plans add another layer.
Before committing to a structure, identify who issues the token, how redemption works, where backing assets are held and where customers are located. Those details help shape permissions, contractual protections and commercial viability.
The UK and EU are working towards 11th October 2027 for the move to T+1 securities settlement. This shortens the standard settlement cycle from two business days after a trade to one. Although go-live falls just beyond this outlook’s September endpoint, preparation belongs on the agenda now.
For execution, matching, allocation, data and post-trade providers, the change creates questions about information flows, dependencies and responsibility.
Can your suppliers deliver within the shorter window? Do customer commitments reflect what your service can achieve? Are escalation procedures clear when information arrives late?
Reviewing fintech commercial contracts alongside operational testing can help expose gaps in service levels, cut-off times and responsibilities.
Consolidated tapes bring market information from different trading venues into a single feed.
The FCA expects to begin procurement for a UK equity consolidated tape provider in early 2027, with operation planned for 2027 or early 2028. In the EU, ESMA authorised EuroCTP as the consolidated tape provider for shares and ETFs in July 2026.
For market data and analytics businesses, these developments could affect data access, distribution, pricing and customer expectations.
Review the feeds your product depends on and what your market data licences allow. Consider where customers see the value in your offering, including the analysis and workflows you build around the underlying information.
The FCA’s transaction reporting reforms under PS26/15 are due to take effect on 3rd April 2028. They include reducing reporting fields from 65 to 52, removing FX derivatives from scope and shortening the default back-reporting period. Reporting and regtech providers may need to assess product changes well before implementation.
For businesses with EU operations, the EU Anti-Money Laundering Regulation generally starts applying on 10th July 2027. Whether and how it affects your business depends on your activities and the applicable scope.
Identify what affects you directly and what may reach you through customers or suppliers. Then assess the changes needed to processes, tools, contracts and internal ownership.
UK fintech businesses should also consider developments in the markets they serve.
In the US, Treasury clearing compliance dates are 31st December 2026 for eligible cash market transactions and 30th June 2027 for eligible repo transactions. The impact depends on the transactions and parties involved.
For businesses expanding into the UAE, the starting point is understanding which framework applies to their proposed activities and location. The Central Bank, Dubai’s VARA and ADGM’s FSRA have different regulatory responsibilities; cross-border fintech regulation needs to be assessed against the actual business model.
Map your customers, counterparties, products and target markets. That will help identify where specialist financial services regulatory advice is needed before you commit to a launch or expansion timetable.
A practical starting point is to:
Whether you’re preparing for authorisation, launching a product or entering a new market, our fintech lawyers help growing businesses work through the legal and commercial questions.
We provide legal support for scaling fintech companies and specialist support for in-house legal teams, connecting regulatory advice with the contracts and decisions behind the business.
If you’re working out what comes next, get in touch. We’ll help you identify where to focus and what to do next.
