Inaugural UK-Australia Joint Financial Regulatory Forum
Published 25 September 2025
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The inaugural UK-Australia Joint Financial Regulatory Forum took place on 24 September 2025.
The Forum was held virtually and was jointly chaired by Director General (Financial Services) of HM Treasury, Gwyneth Nurse, and Deputy Secretary (Markets Group) of the Australian Treasury, James Kelly. It was attended by official representatives from HM Treasury, Australian Treasury, Bank of England, Financial Conduct Authority, Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Reserve Bank of Australia and Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.
In line with the commitments in the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement, signed in 2021, parties discussed priority areas including regulatory reform, pensions regulation and digital assets.
Both sides expressed their support for multilateralism, and the UK set out Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey’s priorities as Financial Stability Board (FSB) Chair. These priorities include continuing the work to mitigate risks from the Non-Banks Financial Institutions sector and the importance of effective surveillance tools to identify vulnerabilities in the financial system.
Regulatory reform
The UK and Australia exchanged information on their respective approaches for enabling market access, including recognising overseas regulatory regimes.
The UK discussed ongoing work to deliver a competitive regulatory environment (including through the Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy, the Regulation Action Plan and progress on implementing the regulators’ secondary international competitiveness and growth objectives) and Australia discussed work across the Council of Financial Regulators and its regulatory reform agenda. Further discussion included how better regulatory practice can support economic growth, and benefit the financial system, and the key lessons learned to date on how to improve regulatory arrangements, as well as the available evidence base and metrics for understanding how to factor growth considerations into regulation.
Pensions Regulation
The UK and Australia discussed their respective pensions landscapes, including the use of ‘Member Outcomes Assessments’ in Australia and ongoing work on establishing a ‘Value for Money’ framework in the UK. This was followed by discussion of investment behaviours of Australian superannuation schemes and UK pension funds and associated policy. Both countries outlined their work to support individuals during decumulation to improve outcomes for pension savers, and committed to engaging further bilaterally on pensions
Digital Assets
The UK and Australia discussed their respective cryptoasset and stablecoin regulatory developments, including in the global context, and explored potential similarities between their developing regimes.
The UK and Australia look forward to further discussion on approaches to stablecoins and respective regime developments both in international fora (such as the FSB and International Organization of Securities Commissions) and bilaterally, and to considering further options for joint working and supervisory cooperation.
The chairs were pleased to note that additional conversations will be taking place between UK and Australian officials, including on open finance and sustainable finance. These conversations will help the UK and Australia share expertise on a number of key issues including, fund labels for sustainable investment products, climate-related financial disclosures, transition planning, and the opportunities of enhanced data sharing in financial services.
The Forum represents the delivery of commitments made in the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement to seek greater regulatory cooperation and deepen the UK-Australia financial services relationship.
The Forum was followed by an industry-led UK-Australia business roundtable on 25 September with participation from industry representatives from both countries. The roundtable opened with senior participants sharing reflections on the discussions held at the Forum, before inviting industry reflections in open discussion.