• Cleartoken
  

The increasing adoption of decentralised ledger technology (DLT) and digital assets has the potential to reshape financial markets on a global scale. Tokenisation (the representation of traditional and real-world assets with tradeable programmable tokens on DLT) in particular promises to increase liquidity, efficiency, and broader access to markets, impacting inexperienced retail to institutional behemoths.

• Rogo

Artificial intelligence has arrived in global finance. A year ago, conversations among leaders at the world's largest banks and investment firms were about adoption. Today, the question that now faces senior leadership is harder: how does the institution reorganize operations around AI to maximize the advantages of the technology beyond efficiency gains? And it's how to do that inside institutions where regulatory risk, data confidentiality and auditability are non-negotiable.

• Simmons & Simmons

In March, the Financial Conduct Authority published its latest perimeter report, setting out what is within the FCA's regulatory remit and where it believes the boundaries of its remit are under pressure.[1]

• Sullivan & Cromwell

On February 25, 2026, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the “OCC”) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (the “NPRM”)[1] to implement provisions of the “Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act” or the “GENIUS Act.” The proposed rule would address requirements for OCC-licensed payment stablecoin issuers, including application requirements for any entity that seeks to become an OCC-licensed issuer, limits on permissible activities, prohibitions on payments of interest or yield, requirements for maintenance and treatment of reserves for payment stablecoins, requirements for redemption of payment stablecoins and obligations with respect to risk management and capital adequacy. The proposed rule would also impose certain requirements on all OCC-regulated institutions that provide custody services for payment stablecoin reserves and related assets of any payment stablecoin issuer (i.e., regardless of which regulator supervises the issuer).

Travers Smith

It is common, if not trite, to say that the pace of change in the cryptoassets field is very rapid, but on the UK regulatory front, April 2026 has surely brought us "peak pace": on 15 April 2026, the FCA published CP26/13, including draft guidance on the regulatory perimeter (referred to as "New PERG"), one of the last pieces of the jigsaw for firms pulling together their plans to enter (or not) the UK's cryptoassets regulatory system. Just six days later, His Majesty's Treasury (HMT) published details of a package of amendments to its earlier  legislation establishing the perimeter.  

Simmons & Simmons

Revamping post-Brexit rules to encourage growth and innovation is welcome, but the City has so far successfully lobbied Starmer to exempt financial services from closer alignment with EU rules. Brexit meant regulatory frictions increased, but it also delivered gains.

Tokenovate

As tokenisation moves from experimentation into live market infrastructure, attention is increasingly shifting toward the operational workflows supporting modern capital markets. Richard Baker, Founder and CEO of Tokenovate, explores why firms are rethinking post-trade coordination, reconciliation and settlement in increasingly real-time environments.

Simmons & Simmons

The financial institutions sector faces both significant challenges and exciting opportunities. The pace of change facing us today means the future can’t be understood as a single event or forecast. It is shaped continuously by shifting regulation, technology, markets and capital. 
 
The Continuum+ brings together insight and broader perspectives from across Simmons & Simmons’ global practice to help you understand what is changing now – and what that means in practical terms for strategy, investment and risk.

Baker McKenzie

Artificial intelligence (“AI”) is increasingly being used by large companies to enhance decision-making, increase efficiency, optimise supply chains, and uncover new growth opportunities.

As technology continues to evolve, the question is no longer “if” businesses should adopt AI, but how quickly they can deploy it effectively, particularly as “AI-first” delivery models emerge and AI regulation intensifies. Whilst there is still no technology capable of running entire transactions end to end, AI is increasingly being used in specific stages of the deal process where it can add real value by enhancing the insight and analysis lawyers contribute to complex transactions.

White & Case

The EU AI Act is a complex law that
is, in places, hard to understand.
This Handbook is designed to help
businesses navigate these challenges
by providing a pragmatic analysis of
the issues they are likely to face under
the EU AI Act. It emphasises practical
compliance over legal theory, offering
actionable guidance and insights
wherever possible.

White & Case

Increases in computational power, coupled with advances in machine learning, have fueled the rapid rise of AI. This has brought enormous opportunities, as new AI applications have given rise to new ways of doing business. It has also brought potential risks, from unintended impacts on individuals (e.g., AI errors harming an individual's credit score or public reputation) to the risk of misuse of AI by malicious third parties (e.g., by manipulating AI systems to produce inaccurate or misleading output, or by using AI to create deepfakes).

Linklaters

Linklaters is a world leader in equity capital markets transactions. We have been at the forefront of advising on some of the world’s largest and most complex equity capital markets transactions, comprising international (including SEC registered and Rule 144A) and domestic primary and secondary offerings, “dual-track” processes, direct listings, equity private placements, SPACs, PIPEs and de-SPACs and the provision of corporate advisory, governance and compliance advice.

Linklaters

In the midst of war, a global energy shock, rapid automation and climate change, the role of boards is relatively unchanging. They must seek
to limit the impact of foreseeable risks, manage crises, build business resilience and seize strategic opportunities. What has changed is the
complexity and uncertainty of the environment in which they must make decisions.

Addleshaw Goddard

The FCA, PRA, Bank of England, HM Treasury and Parliament have each engaged with artificial intelligence in financial services over the past 18 months. The resulting outputs range from supervisory statements with immediate practical consequences, to Parliamentary inquiries and reports that apply pressure without creating binding rules. This briefing draws that landscape together. Its purpose is practical: to explain why AI has recently been back in focus, what already applies to firms today, and where the material gaps and frictions remain for both solo and dual-regulated firms.  

Linklaters

2025 was a year of recalibration with a focus on simplifying and streamlining sustainability requirements, and increased emphasis on business growth and competitiveness. This gave businesses a much-needed chance to catch their breath, as well as anxiety, in equal measure, as the process brought a high degree of legal uncertainty.