Government set to slash red tape for investment industry
The government is set to launch a consultation aiming to slash red tape from the alternative investment industry, City PM understands.
City minister Emma Reynolds is set to launch the consultation, which will begin in the coming weeks, while addressing top brass in the private equity and venture capital sector later today.
Speaking at a British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA) dinner tonight, Reynolds is expected to highlight the importance of the sector as a key driver of growth in the UK.
The consultation will focus on the regulation governing alternative investment fund managers, which invest in assets other than stocks and bonds, such as property and infrastructure. Reynolds said the new consultation will help “save firms time and money, and fuel growth”.
It will seek to scrap overlapping rules and replace them with a ‘simpler and more proportionate’ regime for fund managers in a bid to enhance the UK’s position as an asset management giant.
“I’m determined to go further and faster to drive growth through our plan for change and put more money into working people’s pockets,” Reynolds is expected to say, insisting that “freeing fund managers from costly and burdensome rules will enhance the attractiveness of the UK as an asset management hub – saving firms time and money, and increasing this economic contribution to fund our public services”.
The move will build on a wider plan from the government to modernise the UK’s financial services infrastructure in recent weeks.
Last month, Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed that the UK will move to a ‘T+1’ standard for settling securities trades from 2027, following in the steps of the US last year. Wider reforms are expected to be announced as part of the financial services element of the government’s upcoming Industrial Strategy.
The BVCA dinner will draw high-profile attendees from across the private capital, banking, regulatory and political communities.