King’s Speech

Lord Ranger of Northwood Excerpts

Tuesday 19th May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ranger of Northwood (Con)]

My Lords, I, too, congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Hobby, my noble friend Lord Blackwater, the noble Baroness, Lady Leaman, and the noble Lord, Lord Dixon, on their superb maiden speeches. May I now introduce them and the House to the next frontier? The next 18 months will, I believe, define Britain’s place in the future of digital finance. The question is whether we lead it or follow others who moved faster.

I welcome the ambition set out in the gracious Speech, in particular the three Bills that speak directly to this challenge. The regulating for growth Bill, with its statutory growth duty and regulatory pilot framework, is a genuinely important step, but may I put one challenge to the Government directly? Industry’s frustration is not with the concepts of sandboxes and pilots; it is with what happens next. Too often, successful pilots demonstrate viability but fail to translate into scalable market change. The framework must include a clear pathway from pilot to authorisation, with timescales, accountability and presumptions in favour of scaling that works. Without that, we risk creating a more elaborate holding pattern, rather than genuine acceleration.

The enhancing financial services Bill is equally welcome. Consolidating the Payment Systems Regulator within the FCA should mean fewer regulators, less duplication and a more coherent experience for scaling firms. The proposed reforms to the Financial Ombudsman Service also address a long-standing concern. Both changes send the right signal, but they must be followed through in practice.

These reforms matter because they are about AI, yes, but also digital assets, and these are no longer separate policy questions. We are entering the era of agentic finance: AI systems that will not merely analyse markets but act within them, initiating payments, allocating capital and managing liquidity in real time. The rules governing digital finance are therefore also the rules governing the next generation of AI. Why does this matter? It is because of AI credit cards, personal agents, programmable money and fractional payments for social media content, and many more use cases.

The world of money is changing, so it was good to see the Bank of England’s willingness last week, as reported in the Financial Times, to revisit its stablecoin approach following industry pressure. This is welcome, but it also reveals a structural weakness. Too often, good outcomes arrive through ad hoc pressure rather than by institutional design. To address this issue, I therefore ask the Government to commit to one specific measure: a standing cross-regulator and industry advisory group, bringing together His Majesty’s Treasury, the FCA and the Bank of England, alongside scaling digital asset issuers and exchanges and AI finance firms, both domestic and international, that are seeking to build here.

The decisions taken in the next 18 months will shape where capital flows, where firms scale and where the next generation of financial technology is built. Agentic financial services can become part of the engine of Britain’s economic growth for the next generation, but only if we are prepared to move with the urgency this moment demands. Regulators can move only as boldly as the political environment permits. It falls to the Government to provide clear direction, to industry to innovate and to Parliament to provide active engagement so that our regulators have the confidence to build systems worthy of Britain’s ability and ambition.