Bank of England minutes record FX definitions, AI topics

• The Legal Sub-Committee discussed the 2026 FX Definitions and the transition from the 1998 definitions.
• The Operations Sub-Committee covered wholesale FX innovation, T+1 securities settlement and Swift messaging changes.
• The Legal Sub-Committee confirmed Tamsin Rolls as deputy chair with no objections.

Action

The Bank of England’s FXJSC Legal Sub-Committee met on 16 June 2026 and discussed ISDA’s 2026 FX Definitions update, competition law guidance and future topics.

Bank of England minutes record FX definitions, AI topics

The FXJSC Operations Sub-Committee also met on 16 June and heard updates on wholesale FX innovation, T+1 securities settlement, Swift and GFXC work.

Respondents

The Legal Sub-Committee meeting was chaired by Sharon Blackman, and the Operations Sub-Committee meeting by James Kaye.

The Legal meeting included guest attendees Ann Battle and Jonathan Martin of ISDA. The Operations meeting included updates from Bank of England, Swift, CLS, UBS and the FCA.

Penalty

No penalty was announced in either set of minutes.

Effective

The meetings took place on 16 June 2026. The Legal Sub-Committee met from 2pm to 3.30pm at the Bank of England, Threadneedle St, London, EC2R 8AH. The Operations Sub-Committee met from 14:00 to 16:00 at the Bank of England’s Moorgate Building, 20 Moorgate, London, EC2R 6DA.

Legal Sub-Committee

The Legal Sub-Committee approved the minutes of its 17 March 2026 meeting. It then discussed the 2026 FX Definitions, including the transition from the 1998 definitions, SWIFT implementation and supporting materials for firms.

The minutes say the four-year program launched in 2024 is now in implementation phase. SWIFT rulebook changes are expected over the summer, and transition to the new FX Definitions is scheduled for November 2027.

The committee also noted non-material amendments to competition law guidance and invited comments on the introductory paragraph and references to the sub-committees.

Sharon Blackman confirmed the appointment of Tamsin Rolls as deputy chair with no objections from the group.

Members also considered revisiting legal issues around AI in FX markets, especially algorithmic trading and related competition law and market practices.

The upcoming policy paper on stablecoins and digital transformation was also noted, with a suggestion to revisit those topics once new regulatory documents are published.

Operations Sub-Committee

The Operations Sub-Committee agreed the minutes of its 18 March 2026 meeting. Members also heard an overview of the March 2026 Main Committee meeting.

That overview said FX markets had remained orderly despite geopolitical uncertainty and a broadly cautious environment. It also covered FX turnover survey results, the potential role of digital assets in FX and GFXC work.

On wholesale FX innovation, Bank of England presenters described work to support innovation and improve cross-border settlement, including policy and international collaboration initiatives and early-stage experimentation.

On T+1 securities settlement, the Bank outlined the planned move in the UK and Europe from a back-office perspective and discussed its possible implications for FX markets.

Swift said it was working with ISDA to revise FX Category 3 messaging standards. It said three change requests had been submitted by ISDA and would be shared for industry consultation.

The GFXC update covered the publication of BIS FX settlement data, next steps for the FX Settlement Risk Working Group, plans for semi-annual FX settlement data and a new Technology and Innovation Working Group.

CLS said settlement volumes remained high amid market volatility and flagged a planned major technical cutover of CLS data centres at the end of June.

The GFXD update covered work on non-deliverable forward messaging practices, the 2027 workplan, AI, netting and custodial issues, plus a rise in FX claims and associated operational challenges.

The FCA update noted continued collaboration with the Bank on EMIR and MiFID, an industry transaction reporting and post-trade working group, and further work on wholesale markets.