At the Innovate Finance Global Summit (IFGS) 2026, HM Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority used the event to set out their next steps on payments.
Stablecoins, tokenised deposits, open banking and AI-led transactions all featured in the day’s announcements, giving a clearer sense of where UK payments policy is heading.
IFGS, now in its 12th year, has become a regular fixture in the UK fintech calendar. Held at Guildhall as the main event of UK Fintech Week, it brings together more than 1,500 people from over 70 countries and is often used for major announcements from government and regulators.
Treasury outlines wider payments reset
On the government side, the main move was a plan to rebuild the payments rulebook around a single framework for both traditional and tokenised payments. That means pulling payment services and electronic money more fully into the UK’s core financial services model, while also making room for stablecoins and tokenised deposits within the same structure.
Treasury said it will consult on stablecoins used in payments, examine how the rules should apply when transactions are carried out by AI agents, and hand the FCA new powers to support the next phase of open banking, including commercial payment schemes. It also said legislation will be brought forward to cut administrative burdens for companies offering stablecoin payments.
Tuesday’s measures also tied payments reform more closely to the government’s digital markets push. Chris Woolard, an EY partner and former interim FCA chief executive, was named Wholesale Digital Markets Champion, with a remit to help drive the development of a tokenised wholesale financial markets system. The government also announced an extra £1 million for the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology and again set out its plan to bring the Payment Systems Regulator into the FCA.
Lucy Rigby, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, said the measures were “our latest stake in the ground as we build a payments ecosystem that is secure, competitive and fully equipped to harness the opportunities created by rapid technological change”.
Woolard framed the task as a shift from manual markets to “digital, tokenised systems”, arguing that success will depend on collaboration between the public and private sectors.
FCA pushes agentic payments up the agenda
The FCA used IFGS to show how it wants to supervise some of these changes. Jessica Rusu, the regulator’s chief data, information and intelligence officer, used the event to put “agentic commerce” front and centre as the FCA announced the next phase of its AI Lab and confirmed a second cohort for AI Live Testing.
“Agentic commerce will change how we transact, how decisions are made,” Rusu said. She also used the event to argue that consumer consent will remain central as AI systems begin acting within preferences and limits set by users.
The new cohort includes Barclays, Experian, GoCardless, Lloyds Banking Group through Scottish Widows, UBS, Aereve, Coadjute and Palindrome. According to the FCA, the use cases include agentic payments, credit score insights, anti-money laundering and know your customer. Testing began in April and is due to run through the rest of the year, with an evaluation report planned for the first quarter of 2027.
Rusu also used IFGS to set out what comes next from the FCA’s innovation programme. The regulator said it is extending its partnership with NVIDIA, opening a second intake for the Supercharged Sandbox on 5 May, and sticking with its current approach of relying on existing rules rather than introducing new AI-specific regulation for now.
She also linked that discussion to the FCA’s open finance roadmap, published last week, which sets out plans through to 2030 and begins in 2026 with work on high-impact use cases including SME lending and access to mortgages.
Stablecoin campaign adds pressure for faster action
Innovate Finance and the Digital Pound Foundation used IFGS to launch a campaign for ‘British Stablecoin Leadership’, calling on government, the Bank of England, the FCA and HMRC to move faster on stablecoin policy. The asks include a quicker regulatory roadmap, support for UK-issued sterling stablecoins and tax treatment that treats stablecoins more like fiat than investment assets.
The UK industry body also published a report with Boston Consulting Group arguing that the UK needs faster regulation, more domestic growth capital, better market access and stronger talent incentives if it wants more fintechs to scale globally.
Janine Hirt, chief executive of Innovate Finance, said: “The UK has all the ingredients to be a global superpower in fintech, payments and capital markets by leading in open banking, digital assets and stablecoin, and agentic AI.”
Attention turns to delivery
Reaction to the announcements quickly turned to what happens next.
Richard Baker, chief executive and founder of post-trade automation fintech Tokenovate, said the direction on tokenisation was welcome, but warned that the real test will be whether regulatory progress is matched by changes in market infrastructure.
“The direction set out today supports a more coordinated approach to modernising market infrastructure and the opportunity now rests in ensuring tokenisation delivers meaningful gains through real changes in post-trade processes, rather than remaining layered onto legacy fragmentation.”
Pratiksha Pathak, partner and head of payments at RedCompass Labs, a payments modernisation company, also welcomed the move, but agreed the detail will matter. She pointed to the need to distinguish properly between token types, make sure the UK’s approach works alongside regimes such as MiCA, and ensure the FCA’s authorisation process can keep pace.
“Bringing stablecoins and tokenised deposits into a unified framework alongside traditional payments is the right direction, but the detail will matter enormously, not least how the regime distinguishes between different token types that carry very different risk profiles.”
Lars Weber, UK managing director at business banking and payments fintech Zeller, approached the changes from a merchant angle. He said the government’s move on stablecoin payments could help address two long-running pressures for businesses: speed and access to funds.
“The government’s commitment to regulating stablecoins for retail payments offers a direct solution to the two biggest pain points merchants face: speed and cost.”
Weber added that moving stablecoins further into the mainstream could help businesses move closer to instant, round-the-clock liquidity, at a time when many are still dealing with delays in getting access to their own revenue.
While, Francesco Simoneschi, chief executive of open banking payments platform TrueLayer, called the package “a great signal” that the government is serious about payment innovation and backing UK fintech.