With a commanding lead in the polls ahead of a general election later in the year, the opposition party has set out its plans for financial services.

Warning that the UK is in danger of slipping behind when it comes to innovation in financial services, the party says it will adopt a coordinated strategy and regulatory framework to embrace new technology.

Labour “fully supports” the Bank of England’s CBDC work and also wants to embrace securities tokenisation, which it says could increase liquidity, provide access to new asset classes and fractionalised assets, and strengthen risk management.

“A future Labour government will therefore look to make the UK a global leader in tokenisation by advancing work to clarify the law around tokenisation, and working with regulators to establish a proportionate, outcomes-based regulatory regime to oversee the technology,” says the plan.

Labour also wants to take a lead in setting international standards for the use of AI in financial services.

Meanwhile, the party is backing the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee’s work to define the next phase of Open Banking including laying out the long-term regulatory framework. It is also promising to develop a roadmap for Open Finance, arguing it has the potential to help improve financial inclusion and support household saving and investment.

In addition, a Labour government will ask the FCA and PSR to evaluate the potential to stand up a new regulatory sandbox to encourage development of products to reach excluded and underserved Brits.

Read the full plan