The British American Finance Alliance

In October 2020, over twenty groups representing the UK and U.S. financial and related professional services industries joined together to form the British American Finance Alliance (BAFA).

At its launch, BAFA proposed a united business vision for UK-U.S. regulatory cooperation and dialogue. This effort was part of the industry’s response to the U.S.-UK Financial Regulatory Working Group (FRWG) which was established between the two Treasury departments and independent regulatory authorities “to deepen bilateral regulatory cooperation and to enhance: financial stability; investor protection; fair, orderly, and efficient markets; and capital formation across both jurisdictions”.

In its early stages, the FRWG played an important role in managing the Brexit transition. Since then, new challenges emerged, and existing ones evolved: the COVID-19 pandemic, rising geopolitical tensions and accelerating climate and technological change. In parallel, with Brexit in the rearview mirror, the UK is designing and implementing regulations independently.

BAFA has welcomed the fact the U.S.-UK collaboration is now evolving to address these forward-facing issues. Financial and professional services have considerable potential to drive growth in both countries and help meet wider strategic objectives. Realising that potential will require bilateral regulatory collaboration which work towards maximizing gains in regulatory coherence and ensuring that the landscape of policies and rules supports transatlantic investment.

We believe there is an important role for industry, through BAFA, to support policymakers and regulators in achieving this goal. With elections on the horizon in both countries, this paper restates BAFA’s support for U.S.-UK regulatory collaboration and identifies some immediate and longer-term priorities for dialogue.

BAFA looks forward to deepening and broadening our engagement with the UK-U.S. authorities to the mutual benefit of both economies’ shared prosperity and security.