AFB Virtual Seminar: What is the UK’s Economic Outlook for 2026?

AFB will hold a virtual seminar (with Q&A) as part of its regular series on the economic outlook for the global economy.
 

We are pleased to announce that Dr Gerard Lyons has agreed to present his views on the economic outlook (in an international context) for the UK for the remainder of 2025 and 2026.  Dr Lyons is a well-known independent commentator on economic matters, as well as being the Chief Economist at Netwealth and a Board Member of Bank of China and BGC Partners.

The UK economy (and countries across the world) are faced with challenges caused by tariff changes and higher inflation. In this session, Dr Lyons will reflect on these and their impact on the UK economy and its position post-Brexit. In particular, he will give his views on the choices faced by the UK Government in the budget in the autumn.

Who should attend?

This session is intended for those who focus on Business issues within member firms. Given the broad nature of the topic, it is likely to be of interest to other roles and functions, including Risk, Finance, Legal, Operations and Compliance.

Speaker

Dr Gerard Lyons – Board member of Bank of China (UK) and BGC Partners, and Chief Economist at Netwealth

Dr Lyons is an economist and has been described by The Times as ‘one of the most influential analysts of the global economy’. In the City, he is the Senior Independent Director and a board member of Bank of China (UK) and is Chair of the Risk Committee and sits on the board of BGC Partners, the global brokerage firm. He is also Chief Economist at Netwealth Investments, the discretionary wealth manager which he helped establish in 2016. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum.

From 1999-2012 he was Group Head of Global Research, Chief Economist and Advisor to the Board at Standard Chartered, as well as having senior business roles as a member of the bank’s Executive Forum and Risk Management Committee, where he was credited as one of the few economists to predict the 2008 global financial crisis and where his team was rated in 2010-11 by Bloomberg as the most accurate forecaster globally.

On public policy he is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies. He advised Boris Johnson when Mayor of London, was senior advisor to Gordon Brown’s Business Council for Britain, was a candidate for Governor of the Bank of England in 2019, was an inaugural member of the EU Commission’s Network of China Experts and has sat on several Councils of the World Economic Forum. He has testified to committees of the US Senate and House of Representatives, and to committees of both Houses of the UK Parliament. His paper ‘Banking the Unbanked’ was presented at the Commonwealth Finance Ministers Conference and his report ‘Qatar 2020’ was commissioned by and presented to the Emir.

On the environment he has sat on the Advisory Board of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment since its inception in 2008 and since 2022 has been a member of the Washington-based Bretton Woods Committee’s Climate and Energy Transition Finance (CEFT) project team.

In 2010 he was elected by the economic members to serve a five-year term on the Council of the Royal Economic Society and also joined the strategy group. Since 2011 he has been appointed a Fellow of the Society of Professional Economists. In 2025, he was re-appointed to serve another term as a member of the UK economy Honours Committee.

He co-hosts a podcast with his comedian daughter: Elfonomics. 

Logistics

Fee:          Included in AFB membership

Format:    Online on Zoom

Date:        Friday 10 October 2025

Time:        09:00 – 10:15

If you would like to submit a question that you would like the session to address, please send them to the AFB Secretariat. You will receive details on how to join the virtual session a week before the event.