Chris Holmes - Community Author: Finextra Research

Why the Government has the wrong approach to digital ID

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

Why the Government has the wrong approach to digital ID

Digital ID holds the promise of improved lives, services and systems for citizen, consumer and country. But the Government’s current approach, suggesting mandatory digital ID to stop illegal immigration, is going about it in precisely the wrong way. Fintech benefits I have been writing about the potential benefits of digital ID for years. There...

09 October 2025 /identity

Is the UK 'overestimating the risk and underestimating the opportunity' of stablecoins?

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

Is the UK 'overestimating the risk and underestimating the opportunity' of stablecoins?

I remember writing about the introduction of the Financial Services and Markets Bill in July 2022 and reflecting how the (then) Chancellor’s Mansion House speech had claimed “it reinforces the UK’s position as a leading centre for technology as we safely adopt crypto assets” stressing a “vision to make the UK one of the most dynamic financial cent...

04 August 2025 /regulation

The Data (Use and Access) Act has passed - what will change and what’s next?

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

The Data (Use and Access) Act has passed - what will change and what’s next?

After six years in the making, the Data (Use and Access) Act is finally here. The Act gained Royal Assent on 19 June 2025 and is set to have a significant impact despite more controversial parts of the Bill being dropped before the law was passed. The Data Act amends the UK GDPR, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations and the Data Pr...

01 July 2025 /regulation

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

Long reads