Can AI Tools Accelerate Mid-Market ROI?

As an outcome of the introduction of the UKLR sourcebook in July 2024, both the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and FTSE Russell made substantial modifications to their rules. In July 2024, the LSE confirmed changes to its Admission and Disclosure Standards to reflect the collapse of the previous premium and basic listing segments into the brand-new industrial business category.

, chaired by Charlie Geffen. The objective of the taskforce was to think about the potential benefits of the UK moving to a T +1 securities settlement cycle and outline how this change might be executed.

On 19 February 2025, the UK federal government announced it accepted the recommendation and the UK market intends to transfer to a T +1 settlement cycle on 11 October 2027. One of the suggestions from the UK Secondary Capital Raising Evaluation led to the establishment in July 2022 of the Digitisation Taskforce, chaired by Sir Douglas Flint.

Professional Analysis of UK Global Markets

In July 2023, the taskforce released an Interim Report (read our summary here) that made a variety of recommendations, consisting of: legislation should be advanced, and company short articles of association changed, as quickly as practicable to stop the issuance of brand-new paper share certificates; the government must advance legislation to require dematerialisation of all share certificates at a future date; the government needs to talk to issuer and financier representatives on the preferred personality of "recurring" paper share interests and whether a time frame should be enforced for the identification of untraced Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBOs); andintermediaries need to have a commitment, as a condition of involvement in the clearing and settlement system, to put in location typical technology that allows them to react to UBO demands from providers within a really brief time frame.

ANSR July UK PRs

Digitisation would target listed companies with a view to reducing expenses and waste, and improving shareholder interaction. The report proposes additional measures to guarantee that UBOs within the intermediated securities chain would be able to work out investor rights that are presently only ensured for registered shareholders, in addition to measures to improve communication in between companies and UBOs.