In what is widely expected to be her final major act as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves MP used her 2026 Mansion House speech in valedictory fashion to defend her economic record and announce a host of measures intended to support economic growth and competitiveness. She argued that the UK economy has strengthened over the past two years, citing growth, lower borrowing, rising investment and wages, and improvements in public services – whilst defending the government's “securonomics” approach, emphasising fiscal stability, infrastructure investment, industrial policy, and economic resilience.
She outlined three strategic priorities that will likely shape her successor’s in-tray, including:
• Driving growth across all UK regions through greater devolution and regional investment.
• Supporting future industries, particularly AI, defence, and advanced technologies.
• Deepening economic and security ties with the European Union, including pursuing further UK-EU agreements.
The speech also highlighted reforms to financial regulation, pension investment, SME finance, and export support, as well as host of financial services announcements, updates and consultations that will cut across the work of corporate treasurers.
The Governor of the Bank of England also provided remarks. In his speech, Andrew Bailey argued that well-designed regulation can support sustainable economic growth by providing stability, enabling innovation and protecting financial stability (but warned that “to simply argue for less regulation is unhelpfully reductive”). He set out why the UK needs stronger long-term growth, explained the role of bank capital in supporting a resilient banking system, highlighted the potential of modern payments and tokenisation, and discussed the opportunities and risks posed by artificial intelligence.
Key announcements for corporate treasurers
• Progress updates on the Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/one-year-on-delivering-the-fs...
• AI-related financial services measures, including the AI Adoption Plan: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-adoption-plan-financial-se...
• A report from the UK’s Wholesale Digital Markets Champion, Christopher Woolard CBE, setting out a framework for the UK financial sector to drive tokenisation of wholesale financial markets: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wholesale-digital-markets-cha...
• Publication of recommendations from the Transatlantic Taskforce on Markets of the Future. The TTMF was established in 2025 by HM Treasury and US Treasury to develop recommendations to advance UK-US financial services collaboration, focussing on digital assets and capital markets: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/recommendations-of-the-transa...
• A consultation on Modernising Payment Services Regulation, which sets out the government’s approach and seeks views on how regulation needs to adapt to support innovation whilst ensuring strong consumer protections: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/modernising-payment-services...
• The Financial Services Skills Compact, which asks financial services firms to commit to targeted, meaningful and ambitious actions to reduce skills gaps: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a4f76e72467584757371b36/...
• An expansion of the British Business Bank’s Growth Guarantee Scheme to increase the availability of finance for small and medium-sized businesses: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/chancellor-to-unlock-billions-in-fina...
