Taking stock, pressing forward

As Covid-19 fears abate, the brutal conflict in Ukraine grinds into its second year and reverberates around the globe through disruption to supply chains as well as a cost-of-living squeeze. Amid these challenges, compliance professionals in the United Kingdom are facing multiple significant programmes of financial regulatory reform, write Mark Simpson and Kimberley Everitt.

Mark Simpson (mark.simpson@bakermckenzie.com) is a partner and head of Baker McKenzie's Financial Services Regulatory team in London, where Kimberley Everitt (kimberly.everitt@bakermckenzie.com) is a senior knowledge lawyer. With contribution from partners Philip Annett (philip.annett@bakermckenzie.com) and Caitlin McErlane (caitlin.mcerlane@bakermckenzie.com) of the same practice group.

The past three years of global events and crises in the world of financial services have made the task of predicting the regulatory future nearly impossible. From the Covid-19 pandemic that swept across the globe in 2020 (and continues to simmer in the background), to the crisis in Ukraine, to supply chain and logistics failures and, most recently, the cost-of-living crisis, anticipating regulatory priorities and predicting developments for the year ahead has become a bit of a fool's game. Over the past 36 months regulators around the world have moved at pace to contain the knock-on effects of these difficulties, modifying regulatory programmes and delaying planned reforms to institute emergency measures. With that context in mind, we can review the year in financial services regulation for 2022, and look ahead - while recognising the slight futility of predictions - to the year in financial services for 2023.