Chris Holmes - Community Author: Finextra Research

Are we finally seeing the shift to blockchain-as-infrastructure?

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

Are we finally seeing the shift to blockchain-as-infrastructure?

The real news about digital asset innovation is often drowned out by ‘crypto’ noise such as the collapse of FTX and the launch of Trump Coins, but what should we really be listening to? 2025 is the year that Stripe went all in, heralding reports of a stablecoin gold rush in financial services as the UK’s Insolvency Service announces they have hired...

17 June 2025 /regulation

Will the Property (Digital Assets) Bill place the UK as a leader in cryptoassets?

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

Will the Property (Digital Assets) Bill place the UK as a leader in cryptoassets?

The Property (Digital Assets etc.) Bill passed 3rd Reading in the House of Lords on 8 May 2025 and will now move to the House of Commons to go through its legislative stages there. It has been a privilege to serve on the Special Public Bill Committee for this important legal change developed by the Law Commission of England and Wales. This legal c...

19 May 2025 /regulation

FCA’s 5 year strategy: The UK’s shifting approach to digital assets and tokenisation

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

FCA’s 5 year strategy: The UK’s shifting approach to digital assets and tokenisation

The UK needs to get serious about DeFi, digital assets, stablecoins, crypto, RWAs, tokenisation and the kind of compliance that supports innovation and protects consumers. Hopefully the days of politicians confusing bitcoin with blockchain are well behind us and there is now a greater appreciation of the potential of this technology, which is broad...

10 April 2025 /regulation

UK government delays AI Bill, but now is the time to regulate unchecked AI

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

UK government delays AI Bill, but now is the time to regulate unchecked AI

Despite the welcome publication of the Government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan last month, the latest rumours around Westminster are that Ministers have delayed plans for an AI Bill as the UK government seeks to align itself with the U.S. administration on the technology. There is, self-evidently, a more than pressing need for cross-sector, AI-s...

03 March 2025 /ai

2025 trends: UK regulatory predictions and upcoming legislation

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

2025 trends: UK regulatory predictions and upcoming legislation

A traditional job for this time of year is thinking about what might be coming up in the year ahead. For me this is a combination of likely trends and priorities in the areas I work in which involves fintech from both a business perspective and related legislation. My top five headlines for 2025 (so far) are fraud, AI, stablecoins, smart data and ...

04 February 2025 /regulation

UK National Payments Vision: What does it mean for fintech growth?

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

UK National Payments Vision: What does it mean for fintech growth?

Late last week the government launched their National Payments Vision. Described as resting upon three key pillars of innovation, competition, and security it sets outs welcome detail on regulatory coordination and payment infrastructure upgrades, identifies Open Banking and fraud as priority areas and establishes a payments vision delivery commit...

20 November 2024 /regulation

What the new Data (Use and Access) Bill means for the UK

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

What the new Data (Use and Access) Bill means for the UK

This time last year I was writing about an important milestone in the digital economy, the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, which had just passed through its commons stages and was arriving with us in the Lords. Sadly, that bill was lost when the General Election was announced although it appeared to be revived, under a new name ‘the ...

08 November 2024 /payments

The UK’s legislative approach: Substance over style

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

The UK’s legislative approach: Substance over style

The UK’s recent regulatory moves on digital assets and stablecoins have been fairly solid on substance but could benefit from a bit more style. By substance I’m thinking of the Electronic Trade Documents Act, the recently introduced Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill and just launched Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS). This ‘substance over style’...

11 October 2024 /regulation

What does the UK’s proposed Digital Assets Bill mean for the future of crypto?

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

What does the UK’s proposed Digital Assets Bill mean for the future of crypto?

On September 11 a new bill to clarify the legal status of digital assets, including crypto-tokens, was introduced to the House of Lords. Based on extensive work published by the Law Commission of England and Wales earlier this year the bill proposes a “third category” of personal property rights. Currently under UK law there are two traditional ...

20 September 2024 /regulation

UK election 2024: What it means for fintech regulation

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

UK election 2024: What it means for fintech regulation

We are days away from a general election and when the new government introduce their legislative agenda on 17th July, I hope it will include a new Smart Data Bill, Digital Assets Bill, National Payments Vision and, in case the government doesn’t introduce one, I will be bringing back my private members bill on regulating AI. Future of finance Num...

03 July 2024 /regulation

What does the General Election mean for Data Protection, Digital Markets, and AI Regulation Bills?

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

What does the General Election mean for Data Protection, Digital Markets, and AI Regulation Bills?

I started the year writing about three important new laws that were with us in the House of Lords: the Data Protection Bill, the Digital Markets Bill, and my own AI (Regulation) Bill. The Data Protection and Digital Information Bill covered many aspects of data protection law including enabling smart data/data sharing across government – key fo...

10 June 2024 /regulation

Open banking next step: A request for public input on how to structure the 'Future Entity'

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

Open banking next step: A request for public input on how to structure the 'Future Entity'

The Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee (JROC) consists of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Payments Systems Regulator (PSR), HM Treasury (HMT) and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), and is tasked with realising the full potential of open banking. To this end, they have published recommendations for the next phase of open banking...

08 May 2024 /regulation

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