By Elena Siniscalco
[Re:Nadhim Zahawi: The next PM will have ready-made options for the energy crisis, August 25]
Zahawi’s acceptance of a raft of improvements to modernise the UK financial services sector is a welcomed and much-needed move.
The UK Secondary Capital Raising Review recommendations, including the digitisation of share certificates, will strengthen the capital raising processes for publicly traded companies and make the process of investing and owning shares more efficient and transparent.
However, a single digital register for shareholdings also raises other important possibilities. The work to underpin digitisation dovetails with the objectives of open finance by exposing a wider range of financial products and services to the transformative impact of third-party data sharing.
Amongst securities markets players, there are a number of debates on the future market architecture taking place. They include the reduction in settlement cycles, technology rails like Central Bank Digital Currency, and the proportion of business taking place in traditional ‘market hours’ versus 24/7 markets.
Digitisation will be an important precursor and enabler of these developments – and investors, advisors and other stakeholders across the UK stand to benefit.
Fully digitising the City will be transformative but it will require a careful, co-ordinated and inclusive approach to ensure stability, security and operational efficiency.
Richard Fenner, Euroclear
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