A person shields themselves from the rain while walking near the Bank of England building on the day the Monetary Policy Committee lowered interest rates, in London, Britain, December 18, 2025. REUTERS
April 30 (Reuters) – The Bank of England has raised concerns about Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) plans to cut the capital requirements of specialist trading firms like Citadel Securities, Jane Street and Hudson River Trading, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
BOE officials, the FT said, are worried the plans could increase financial stability risks by making major trading firms less prepared to withstand a crisis.
“We need to think about what incentives this [proposal] will create and what impact it will have,” one of the officials familiar with the talks told the newspaper.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. The BOE and FCA did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
In December, the FCA was reviewing capital requirements for specialist trading firms including Citadel, Jane Street and XTX, citing a “real opportunity” to make rules more proportionate and enhance Britain’s competitiveness.
The current regime for calculating market risk capital was inherited from the European Union and designed for large, systemically important banks, an official at the FCA told Reuters in December.
Updating or replacing it could free up capital for trading firms, the regulator said.
Revamp options ranged from tweaking the existing EU-aligned rules to an overhaul of the regime that could see Britain aligned with the U.S.’ “net risk rules” approach, or using an internal model to calculate minimum requirements.
Reporting by Preetika Parashuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Thomas Derpinghaus
