UK: HM Treasury policy statement - the finance sector and critical third parties

HM Treasury has published a policy paper setting out, in general terms, its proposals to bring within the regulatory remit of the financial regulators certain third parties providing key functions and services to the finance sector (e.g., cloud-based computing services): see here. To quote directly from the policy paper (para. 1.6):

Under this proposal, HM Treasury will – in consultation with the financial regulators and other bodies – be able to designate certain third parties which provide services to firms as ‘critical’. The financial regulators will then be able to make rules, gather information, and take enforcement action, in respect of certain services that critical third parties provide to firms of particular relevance to the regulators’ objectives (which the regulators refer to as ‘material’ services)."