Meeting minutes - February 2026
Published 16 July 2026
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On 26 February 2026, the Chancellor met the Governor to discuss the Financial Policy Committee’s (FPC) view of the UK’s financial stability outlook as presented in the December 2025 Financial Stability Report (FSR). The Chancellor noted the report’s release and its assessment of potential risks to financial stability.
In the FSR, the FPC noted that risks to financial stability had increased during 2025, reflecting elevated global risks and continued uncertainty in the macroeconomic outlook. The FPC highlighted geopolitical tensions, fragmentation of trade and financial markets, and pressures on sovereign debt markets as key risks. It also noted stretched valuations in some asset classes, particularly AI-focused technology firms. However, the FPC continued to judge that UK households and corporates were resilient in aggregate, and that the UK banking system remained well placed to support households and businesses, supported by the results of the 2025 Bank Capital Stress Test.
The Chancellor and Governor also discussed the forthcoming system-wide exploratory scenario (SWES), which would further enhance understanding of risks associated with the growing private markets ecosystem. The Governor also outlined the FPC’s revised assessment of bank capital requirements, including its judgement that the appropriate benchmark for system-wide Tier 1 capital requirements is around 13% of RWAs, one percentage point lower than the previous benchmark.
Note: This meeting predated the US–Israel–Iran conflict, which began two days later on 28 February 2026.