InMarketing Today

The FCA has unveiled a reform package to improve transparency in UK equity markets, opening two consultations that run until 16 October and committing to introduce a consolidated tape for shares within 18 months. It follows June's launch of a UK bond consolidated tape, which has already attracted more than 1.6 million licence subscriptions. FCA executive director of markets Simon Walls said the package "settles the big design questions and sets the path to deliver the tape within the next 18 months."

The comms lesson here is trust as a deliberate output, not a by-product. The FCA isn't just building infrastructure, it is choosing to publish a running commentary on its own design decisions, deadlines and named executives, because opacity breeds suspicion in markets. The same logic holds for any regulated brand: firms that volunteer clarity before it is demanded earn more credibility than those dragged into it by a regulator or a headline.

Audit what your firm discloses voluntarily against what it is required to disclose. Where a clear, plain-English view of your own data or decisions would build trust with clients or regulators, publish it now, before the FCA's own 18-month timeline makes proactive transparency look like the industry standard rather than a differentiator.

Lloyds Banking Group has completed three live tokenised deposit transactions through Project Agorá, the Bank for International Settlements' wholesale tokenisation initiative. In one test, a Lloyds account at Deutsche Bank sent €10,000 to Caixabank, settled through tokenised reserves at Banque de France, with currency exchange, payment and settlement completed in an average of one minute and twenty seconds. Lloyds' Peter Left said the testing "gives us valuable practical insight into how tokenisation could help reduce friction and settlement risk in wholesale payments, while operating within the regulated banking system."

The phrase doing the work for Lloyds' brand is "within the regulated banking system." It isn't selling speed for its own sake, it is selling speed with the safety rails visibly still on. That is the pitch every institution racing to look innovative against leaner fintech competitors needs to make: a fast, frictionless claim means nothing to a CFO or regulator without an explicit companion promise of control.

If your product or service removes friction, say plainly what stays governed and audited underneath it. Do not let "faster" stand alone in your marketing, pair it with the specific safeguard that persuaded a bank's compliance function to say yes.

City law firm Eversheds Sutherland is giving every lawyer a £350 budget specifically to entertain clients, as AI use rises within the firm. Senior office partner for London Chris Halliday said the firm is "seeing the benefits of AI adoption" but that junior lawyers still need to "engage with our clients and develop trusted relationships with them" through face-to-face contact, "not just at a senior level, but at all levels in the firm." Quinn Emanuel, Winston Taylor and Baker McKenzie confirmed similar policies. Deloitte's 2026 Gen Z and Millennial survey found business leaders worry that "early reliance on technology could hinder human capabilities such as critical thinking, communication, empathy, influence, and social skills."

This is a funded, deliberate hedge against AI anxiety. As the mechanical parts of legal work automate, firms are betting the human relationship becomes the differentiator rather than a courtesy. Partners at Winston Taylor told City AM their junior staff are "hesitant to pick up the phone to call clients", exactly the skill clients still pay a premium for a human being to have.

If AI is genuinely taking workload off your team, do not just bank the efficiency saving. Redirect some of that freed time and budget into training juniors on the client-facing skills AI cannot replicate: the call, the lunch, the room. Building that muscle now is cheaper than explaining its absence in five years.