Credit reference agencies. The government intends to designate Experian, Equifax and CreditSafe under the Small and Medium Sized Business (Credit Information) Regulations 2015 (a draft version of which was published earlier in November 2015). These Regulations, which will be made under the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, will impose a duty on designated banks to provide specified information about their small and medium-sized business customers to designated credit reference agencies (CRAs), and a duty on designated CRAs to provide such information to lenders, subject to the agreement of the business to which the information relates (see Legal update, Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill 2014-15 receives Royal Assent: financial services aspects).

Bank levy. The government will consult on changing the scope of the bank levy to UK operations from 1 January 2021. This reflect an announcement made in the July 2015 budget that from 1 January 2021 UK headquartered banks will be levied on their UK balance sheet liabilities (see Legal update, July 2015 Budget: key business tax announcements: Bank levy reduction and restriction).

Secondary market for annuities. The government intends to publish a response in December 2015 on its call for evidence on removing the barriers to the creation of a secondary market in annuities. It published the call for evidence in March 2015 (see Legal update, March 2015 Budget: key financial services announcements).

Taxation of asset managers' performance-based rewards. The government intends to use the Finance Bill 2016 to introduce legislation to determine when performance awards received by asset managers will be taxed as income or capital gains.