BoE-FCA FMI Supervision MoU: What the 2025/26 Review Means for UK EMIR Reporting

ByOfficer

Last updated: June 2026

If you run a UK EMIR reporting function, the news that the Bank of England and the FCA have reviewed their Memorandum of Understanding on financial market infrastructure looks like a non-event. Two regulators tell each other they cooperate well. No template changed, no deadline moved. Easy to file and move on.

That reflex is where reporting teams misread the signal. The MoU decides which regulator owns your reporting obligation, who answers your validation queries, and who steers the live UK EMIR reform programme that will change your submissions over the next two years. The 5 June 2026 statement confirming the arrangements remain effective also points at several moving parts that land directly on transaction reporting desks.

Related reading: our EMIR reporting guide covers the EU baseline that UK EMIR was carved out of.

What the BoE-FCA FMI MoU actually is

The Memorandum of Understanding is a coordination document between the Bank of England (including the PRA) and the FCA setting out how the two authorities supervise financial market infrastructures without tripping over each other. Financial market infrastructure here means central counterparties (CCPs), recognised central securities depositories (RCSDs), recognised investment exchanges (RIEs), recognised payment systems and trade repositories.

The MoU is not a courtesy. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 gave the Bank a wide-ranging rule-making power over CCPs and CSDs in pursuit of its financial stability objective. The MoU itself fulfils a distinct statutory obligation: under Schedule 17A of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, as amended, the Bank and the FCA must prepare and maintain a memorandum describing how they work together when supervising recognised bodies. The coordinated FMI rulebook the Bank now builds is the reason that memorandum matters. The current MoU replaced an earlier version adopted in 2023, as the Bank’s rule-making powers over CCPs and CSDs expanded under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023.

One detail reporting teams routinely miss: the signatories must review the MoU annually and seek feedback from supervised firms. The 2025/26 exercise is that annual review, not a one-off. If your CCP, exchange or CSD was asked for feedback during 2025, that was the mechanism working as designed.

What the 2025/26 review concluded

The Bank and the FCA wrote to CCPs, RIEs and RCSDs, drawing on those firms’ interactions with both authorities during 2025, and asked whether cooperation was working. Respondents reported a high degree of coordination across policy and supervisory matters. The two authorities concluded that the MoU arrangements remain effective, with appropriate coordination and no material duplication.

The review also pointed to areas of close coordination, including innovation through tokenisation and the Digital Securities Sandbox, operational resilience and the parallel work on operational incident and third-party reporting, and the live UK EMIR reform programme. That last cluster is the part transaction reporting teams should read twice. It confirms the regulators are coordinated while they rebuild large parts of the UK EMIR rulebook, not that reporting requirements are settled.

Who supervises what in UK EMIR reporting

UK EMIR is the assimilated form of Regulation (EU) 648/2012, retained and then amended after Brexit. The reporting obligation sits in Article 9: counterparties must report the details of every derivative contract they conclude, modify or terminate to a registered or recognised trade repository.

The supervisory split is the trap. The Bank of England is responsible for the derivatives reporting framework as it applies to CCPs, and the FCA is responsible for the reporting framework for all other counterparties. The FCA also registers and supervises UK trade repositories. So a single Article 9 obligation is administered by two authorities depending on who reports, and the trade repository between you and the regulator answers to the FCA. The MoU keeps that split from producing two answers to the same question.

This is where teams get UK EMIR wrong after Brexit. UK EMIR is not EU EMIR with a Union Jack on it: the validation rules, technical standards and supervising authorities are domestic. An entity in scope of both regimes files two reporting streams to two sets of trade repositories under two rulebooks, and the field definitions are not guaranteed to move together. Map UK EMIR to the EU framework and assume parity, and you will build the wrong reconciliation. Our MiFIR transaction reporting guide shows the same onshoring divergence in a different reporting stream.

Why a clean MoU review does not mean a quiet year

The reason the review matters now is the volume of live UK EMIR change running underneath it. The headline rebuild is already done: UK EMIR Refit, set out in the joint FCA and Bank of England Policy Statement PS23/2 of 24 February 2023, took effect on 30 September 2024, with a six-month transition for outstanding trades that closed on 31 March 2025. Teams that treated 31 March 2025 as the finish line are finding it was a checkpoint.

After Refit, the authorities consulted on further amendments to the UK EMIR trade repository reporting technical standards to add clarity and cut workarounds; those come into force on 26 January 2026. Separately, in November 2025 HM Treasury published a draft statutory instrument reforming the UK EMIR intragroup regime to address the expiry of the Temporary Intragroup Exemption Regime (TIGER), and the FCA opened Consultation Paper CP25/30 to implement it. On the CCP side, the Treasury is preparing a statutory instrument to replace the CCP framework held in assimilated law (principally Titles III, IV and V of UK EMIR) with the Central Counterparties (Amendment) Regulations 2025, taking effect as the relevant UK EMIR CCP provisions are revoked.

None of these are cosmetic. The intragroup reform changes notification mechanics for firms relying on exemptions. The CCP rewrite moves the legal basis for CCP regulation out of retained EU regulation into domestic rules supervised by the Bank. The 26 January 2026 amendments touch the technical standards that govern how you populate a submission. A reporting officer tracking only the EU EMIR change calendar will miss every one.

The operational-resilience overlap teams underestimate

The review also flagged the IOREP Final Policy for FMIs, the Bank’s operational incident and outsourcing and third-party reporting framework. It introduces standardised reporting of operational incidents above a threshold, notification of new or significantly changed material third-party arrangements, and an annual register submitted to the Bank. The rules take effect on 18 March 2027.

IOREP is not transaction reporting, and conflating the two is a mistake. It does not change Article 9. But for a CCP or a trade repository it is a parallel reporting obligation to the same authorities, and the resilience of your reporting pipeline becomes something the Bank can ask about directly. If you have ever explained a missed UK EMIR submission caused by a vendor outage, you can see how the regimes touch. The discipline that prevents settlement reporting failures, covered in our CCP stress test reporting analysis, is what IOREP formalises.

What the review does not change

It helps to be precise about the limits of a clean review. It does not move any UK EMIR reporting deadline or amend the Article 9 obligation. It does not merge the Bank and FCA into a single FMI regulator, hand trade repository supervision to the Bank, or create a new return.

What it does is confirm the division of labour is holding while the rulebook around it changes, and that supervised firms agree the cooperation works. For a reporting team the value is diagnostic, not operational: a query routed to the wrong regulator should still reach the right answer. That alignment matters most when the rules are in flux, which is where UK EMIR is now. Reporting officers tracking UK accountability changes will recognise the same coordination logic in our SM&CR reforms 2026 explainer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the 2025/26 MoU review change anything I have to file under UK EMIR?

No. The review concluded that cooperation between the Bank and the FCA remains effective, with no material duplication. It does not amend Article 9, move a deadline or create a new return. The changes that do affect filings are separate: the trade repository technical standards amendments in force on 26 January 2026, the intragroup regime reform, and the CCP framework statutory instrument.

Who supervises my UK EMIR reporting, the Bank or the FCA?

It depends on who you are. The Bank of England is responsible for the derivatives reporting framework as it applies to central counterparties. The FCA is responsible for the reporting framework for all other counterparties, and registers and supervises UK trade repositories. The MoU coordinates those responsibilities.

Is UK EMIR the same as EU EMIR for reporting purposes?

No. UK EMIR is the assimilated and amended form of Regulation (EU) 648/2012. The supervising authorities, technical standards and validation rules are domestic. An entity in scope of both regimes reports to both, and should not assume the two frameworks change in lockstep.

What is changing for the UK EMIR intragroup regime?

In November 2025 HM Treasury published a draft statutory instrument to reform the intragroup regime and address the expiry of the Temporary Intragroup Exemption Regime, and the FCA opened Consultation Paper CP25/30 to implement it. Firms relying on intragroup exemptions should track the notification mechanics, which are being streamlined.

Does the IOREP policy affect transaction reporting?

Not directly. IOREP is the Bank’s operational incident and outsourcing and third-party reporting framework for FMIs, effective 18 March 2027. It is a separate reporting obligation, but it applies to the same CCPs and trade repositories and covers the resilience of the systems that produce your UK EMIR submissions.

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Key Takeaways

  • The 5 June 2026 BoE-FCA FMI MoU review concluded that supervisory cooperation remains effective, with no material duplication. It moves no deadline and amends no obligation; its value is confirming the regulators are aligned while the rulebook is rebuilt.
  • The MoU fulfils the Bank’s and FCA’s obligation under Schedule 17A of FSMA 2000 (as amended) to maintain a memorandum on how they supervise recognised bodies together, and is reviewed annually with feedback from supervised firms; FSMA 2023 separately gave the Bank its rule-making powers over CCPs and CSDs.
  • Under Article 9 of UK EMIR the Bank owns the reporting framework for CCPs and the FCA owns it for all other counterparties, while the FCA supervises UK trade repositories.
  • UK EMIR is not EU EMIR. The authorities, technical standards and validation rules are domestic, and the two regimes do not necessarily change together.
  • UK EMIR Refit took effect on 30 September 2024, transition ended 31 March 2025, and further trade repository technical standards amendments take effect on 26 January 2026.
  • The intragroup regime reform (HM Treasury SI, November 2025, plus FCA CP25/30) and the Central Counterparties (Amendment) Regulations 2025 are live workstreams reaching reporting and clearing functions.

Sources and References

  • FCA, Bank of England and FCA MoU on supervision of market infrastructure: 2025/26 review, 5 June 2026 – https://www.fca.org.uk/news/statements/bank-england-fca-mou-supervision-market-infrastructure-review-2025-26
  • Bank of England, Bank of England and FCA Memorandum of Understanding on the supervision of Financial Market Infrastructures, June 2026 – https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/2026/june/boe-and-fca-mou-on-supervision-of-financial-market-infrastructures
  • FCA, MoU between the FCA and the Bank of England on the supervision of financial market infrastructure (PDF) – https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/mou/mou-fca-bank-england-supervision-financial-market-infrastructure.pdf
  • Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 – https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/29
  • FCA, UK EMIR reporting obligation – https://www.fca.org.uk/markets/uk-emir/reporting-obligation
  • FCA, PS23/2: Changes to reporting requirements, procedures for data quality and registration of Trade Repositories under UK EMIR – https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/policy-statements/ps23-2-changes-reporting-requirements-data-quality-registration-trade-repositories-emir
  • Bank of England, Amendments to the UK EMIR Trade Repository reporting requirements (Policy Statement, August 2025) – https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/paper/2025/ps/amendments-to-the-uk-emir-trade-repository-reporting-requirements-august-2025
  • FCA, CP25/30: Streamlining the UK EMIR Intragroup Regime – https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/consultation-papers/cp25-30-streamlining-uk-emir-intragroup-regime
  • GOV.UK, Updating the UK’s regulatory framework for central counterparties – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/updating-the-uks-regulatory-framework-for-central-counterparties/updating-the-uks-regulatory-framework-for-central-counterparties-accessible
  • Bank of England, Operational resilience: operational incident and outsourcing and third-party reporting for FMIs (Policy Statement) – https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/paper/2026/ps/operational-resilience-operational-incident-and-outsourcing-and-third-party-reporting-for-fmis

Reading the MoU as a reporting officer, not a lawyer

Most firms will file the 2025/26 review as routine, and legally that is what it is. Read it as a reporting officer and it is a map. It confirms the Bank and the FCA agree on the boundary between them, so you know where to route a CCP question versus a counterparty one, and that the trade repository answers to the FCA. Then it points at the programmes that will change your work: the UK EMIR review, the 26 January 2026 amendments, the intragroup and CCP framework legislation, and the IOREP regime. The cooperation is steady. The rulebook is not. Plan around the second fact.

Disclaimer: The information on RegReportingDesk.com is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal, regulatory, tax, or compliance advice. Always consult your compliance officer, legal counsel, or the relevant supervisory authority for guidance specific to your institution.

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