King’s Speech 2026: four Bills to watch
In short: The King’s Speech 2026 puts four Bills on the parliamentary timetable that reshape the regulator architecture for payments firms, identity providers, data controllers and acquirers of regulated businesses. Three land directly: the Enhancing Financial Services Bill absorbs the Payment Systems Regulator into the FCA, the Digital Access to Services Bill creates a statutory digital ID, and the Competition Reform Bill replaces the CMA Panel with sub-committees of the CMA Board. The fourth, the European Partnership Bill, is narrowly scoped to electricity, the emissions trading scheme and food and drink, and does not engage UK telecoms, data protection, payments regulation or transactions in those sectors.
Three of the four Bills announced in yesterday’s King’s Speech 2026 reshape the regulator architecture for UK payments firms, identity providers and acquirers of regulated businesses. The Payment Systems Regulator consolidates into the FCA. Digital identity gets a statutory home. The CMA Board takes over Phase 2 merger decisions. The fourth, the European Partnership Bill, is worth flagging precisely because its’s scope is narrow, despite its name.
Enhancing Financial Services Bill: PSR into the FCA
The Bill will absorb the Payment Systems Regulator into the Financial Conduct Authority, ending the dual-regulator model in UK payments regulation. Until the Bill becomes law, the PSR retains its statutory powers under Part 5 of the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013; the FCA and PSR have signalled a joint transition plan, and the PSR annual plan for 2026/27 sets out what may be the regulator’s last full year as a standalone body.
For payments firms regulated under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 and the Electronic Money Regulations 2011, single-regulator engagement becomes the operating model. The first-order effects are positive: one Handbook, one supervisor, no inter-regulator boundary questions on commercial variable recurring payments, APP fraud reimbursement or access. The second-order risk is that competition concerns previously handled distinctively by the PSR, including interchange fee regulation and access to payment systems, are now absorbed into a regulator whose primary remit is consumer protection. The FCA’s 6 May 2026 Competition Act investigation into Mastercard, Visa and PayPal is the first sign of what payments-competition work looks like inside the FCA rather than the PSR. Scheme participants will want to see how that balance lands.
Digital Access to Services Bill: digital ID on a statutory footing
The Bill creates the legal framework for a voluntary, free digital ID, building on the Digital Verification Services regime in the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025. The government has committed to making digital IDs available by 2029. Data sits on the user’s device, with no central register, and consent gates third-party sharing.
The data protection workload for regulated firms is real. Identity providers will need to clear DVS certification under the DUAA 2025 framework, complete data protection impact assessments under Article 35 UK GDPR, and design consent flows that meet the granular control the Bill promises. Telecoms operators, payment firms and platforms accepting digital ID as a know-your-customer input will need to position themselves as relying parties under the trust framework. The Bill does not amend the lawful-basis architecture of UK GDPR; it builds on it. For firms launching identity-dependent products, the gating workstream is data protection compliance.
European Partnership Bill: narrow scope, no operative reach
The European Partnership Bill aligns UK law with EU rules on three specific tracks: electricity trading, the emissions trading scheme, and food and drink standards. The Bill does not engage telecoms, data protection, payments or transactions at the operative level.
Reading the Bill’s name as a wider re-alignment is tempting. The operative text does not bear that out. UK GDPR, the FCA Handbook, the Communications Act 2003 and the merger control framework are not amended. UK adequacy under Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/1772 remains a separate question on its own four-year clock, and the DUAA 2025 changes to automated decision-making and consent stand. The strategic signal, that the government is willing to converge where the cost is low, is worth noting. The operative reach is not.
Competition Reform Bill: CMA Panel replaced by Board sub-committees
The Bill abolishes the independent Panel that currently runs Phase 2 merger inquiries and market investigations under the Enterprise Act 2002, replacing it with sub-committees of the CMA Board comprising senior staff, Board members and expert decision-makers.
For transactions in regulated sectors, the change has two effects. First, decision-making sits more squarely with the CMA executive that conducted Phase 1; the procedural distance between Phase 1 and Phase 2 that the Panel provided is gone. Second, the Bill aims to shorten the Phase 2 timetable. The trade-off is between speed and the institutional separation the Panel afforded. Buyers, lenders and sellers in payments, telecoms and data-heavy deals will want clearance covenants and timetables that reflect the new architecture; see our regulatory due diligence page for the typical sell-side and buy-side scoping.
Viewpoint: King’s Speech 2026 across regulated sectors
I read the three Bills in the King’s Speech 2026 that do land as a single direction of travel: regulator consolidation. Single payments regulator, single competition decision-maker, statutory digital ID built on the DUAA 2025 substrate. The deliberate narrowness of the European Partnership Bill is the most informative point: this government is willing to converge on specific economic tracks, but is not signalling a broader retreat from UK regulatory autonomy, including on data protection.
What follows from the King’s Speech 2026
Each Bill warrants its own deeper piece. Deeper analysis on the PSR and FCA merger follows first, with the Digital Access to Services Bill, the European Partnership Bill and the Competition Reform Bill to follow in turn.
For advice on the implications of the King’s Speech 2026 programme for your business, contact Rob Bratby at Bratby Law.
