In this article, Lisa Owens looks at the wave of UK and EU financial services regulation due over the next two years. She explains why the real challenge for in-house legal and compliance teams is capacity, not expertise, and how to plan resourcing before the deadlines arrive.
When I talk to general counsel and chief compliance officers in financial services, the conversation keeps coming back to the same point; it's rarely about whether their team understands what's coming, it’s about how they'll fit it all in.
That's understandable. A&O Shearman's Financial Services Horizon Report 2026 shows several major UK and EU regulatory workstreams landing at the same time. The headline themes of competitiveness, growth and innovation are good news for the sector. Underneath them, though, is a large volume of detailed legislative, regulatory and supervisory change that firms need to absorb and act on. Each piece needs specialist knowledge, careful implementation planning and sustained focus.
So, the question isn't only what is changing, it’s who will deliver the change, and when.
What's coming: the key regulatory deadlines for 2027
- Prudential: UK implementation of Basel 3.1 has moved to January 2027. Firms need to prepare for significant changes to capital requirements, risk-weighted asset calculations and the new output floor. In the EU, CRR III is already in force. CRD VI brings new requirements for non-EU banks providing cross-border services, with a January 2027 compliance deadline.
- Digital assets: the new UK cryptoasset regime goes live on 25 October 2027. Before then, firms need to complete authorisation readiness work and gap assessments, and strengthen their financial crime controls. In the EU, MiCAR is fully in force and needs embedding across admissions, disclosures, market abuse and governance.
- AML and financial crime: the UK Money Laundering Regulations are being amended, and the FCA is becoming the single AML/CTF supervisor for professional services. Financial crime accounted for 74% of FCA investigations opened in 2024/25. In the EU, the new AML package, including AMLA, adds further obligations for 2027–2028.
- ESG: the UK is moving towards Sustainability Reporting Standards, ESG ratings regulation and transition planning requirements. The EU is pressing ahead with its omnibus simplification of CSRD, CSDDD and the taxonomy.
- Payments: new safeguarding rules apply to payment and e-money institutions. The PSR's functions are being consolidated into the FCA, and HM Treasury is consulting on modernising the payments regulatory framework.
On top of all that come operational resilience expectations, DORA, the Listing Act package, capital markets reform and changing supervisory expectations on AI.
Why this is about capacity, not capability
In-house teams are experts at managing regulatory change. They do it all the time. What makes the next couple of years different is the volume and the timing.
Every workstream involves real work: interpreting the rules, running gap analyses, updating policies, training staff, engaging with regulators and advising the business. Many of these will run at the same time, and most have hard deadlines.
Permanent teams are rightly sized for steady-state demand. Building permanent headcount for peaks that are time-limited and subject-specific rarely makes sense. Where there is a gap, it's one of bandwidth and specialist coverage, not quality or commitment.
Three questions to ask your team now
- Where do the deadlines overlap? Look at your regulatory calendar. Which deadlines coincide, and do they fall on the same people?
- Where is specialist depth thin? Prudential, financial crime, payments, digital assets and ESG each need distinct expertise. Which one is most likely to become your bottleneck?
- What's your flex model? The direction of travel is clear. Firms that line up specialist support early will be better placed than those that go to market once the most experienced people are already committed elsewhere.
How specialist consultant lawyers can help
Experienced consultant lawyers can be brought in quickly to support implementation programmes, cover interim gaps or add targeted expertise in a particular regulatory area. For example:
- a six-month secondment to support a Basel 3.1 programme
- a specialist to lead readiness for the UK crypto regime
- an experienced financial crime lawyer to add capacity during a peak period
At Peerpoint, we work with a curated network of experienced lawyers who combine deep regulatory knowledge with hands-on in-house experience. They understand how financial institutions work and what regulators expect. They also know that advice needs to be pragmatic and commercial, often under time pressure.
Final thoughts
The regulatory agenda for 2027 is well signposted and in-house teams already understand what's coming. The real challenge is delivering several major programmes at once, alongside advising the business day to day.
Planning early makes the biggest difference: map where deadlines overlap, identify where specialist depth is thin, and decide now how you'll flex capacity before demand peaks. Used well, flexible specialist support protects your permanent team's time and focus, so they can concentrate on the decisions only they can make. If you're starting to plan how your team will handle the regulatory workload ahead, find out how flexible specialist support could fit your business.
