UK Money Markets Code review starts in October; BoE sub-committee watches mini-CREST
Victoria Shinder1 min readThe Bank of England published on 6 October the minutes of the September meeting of the UK Money Markets Code Sub-Committee, the forum for market participants and authorities on the UK unsecured deposit and funding market and the securities lending and repo markets.
Adoption. Nine firms have attested to the UK Money Markets Code in 2026, including two banks since the sub-committee's June meeting. 234 firms have signed the Statement of Commitment since the Code was launched in April 2017, and none has withdrawn. The committee asked the secretariat to analyse the potential population of firms in scope, to target engagement, and considered whether the revised Code could include a proportionate, voluntary expectation that existing signatories encourage wider adoption.
The review. The terms of reference require a full review of the Code roughly every three years. The current version was published in June 2024 and the next is due in 2027; the committee agreed to begin the review in October, describing the approach as "light touch but thorough", with an emphasis on material developments in UK money markets, clarifications and futureproofing. Whether to add further instruments and securities will be handled in that review.
Scope. Members agreed that a clearer definition of the Code's jurisdictional coverage of transactions would help, to be applied consistently across the terms of reference, the Code and its explanatory notes.
Settlement contingency. The committee noted Euroclear UK & Ireland's work on contingency arrangements for a CREST outage, known as "mini-CREST", and its possible implications for gilt and repo settlement, and said it will monitor the work.