FCA publishes temporary permission notification direction
A notification must be made during the period beginning at 9am on January 7, 2019 and ending with March 28, 2019.
Adding to the heavy volume of documents and guidelines to firms concerning the UK withdrawal from the European Union, another Direction was posted earlier today by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This is a Direction under regulation 14(2) of the EEA Passport Rights (Amendment, etc., and Transitional Provisions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018. It applies to notifications in accordance with regulation 14(1)(b) of the Regulations where the FCA is the relevant regulator.
The FCA notes that, in order to obtain a deemed Part 4A permission or variation of such a permission under the Regulations, an EEA or Treaty firm that has permission (immediately before exit day) to carry on a regulated activity in the UK under passporting arrangements set out in Schedule 3 or 4 to FSMA must either:
- make an application before exit day for Part 4A permission (or variation of an existing “top-up permission”); or
- notify the relevant regulator as guided by the Direction.
The FCA directs that a notification must:
- be made by submitting the Firm Temporary Permission Notification using the Connect system;
- be made following any further instruction published in relation to the Firm Temporary Permission Notification form;
- contain the information required by that form; and
be made during the period beginning at 9am on January 7, 2019 and ending with March 28, 2019.
More than 1,300 firms and funds have expressed interest in the proposed temporary permissions regime (TPR), Nausicaa Delfas, Executive Director of International, and a member of the Executive Committee at the FCA, said in a recent speech.
The UK regulator published a consultation on the proposed temporary permissions regime about a month ago. The regime is set to allow EEA firms and investment funds to continue to carry on regulated business in the UK for a limited period after Brexit while they seek full authorisation in the UK. The consultation paper sets out how the FCA expects the regime to work in practice, how firms and funds can enter it, how long it will operate for, and the rules the regulator proposes should apply to firms and fund marketing activities during the regime.
Put briefly, firms should register between January and March 2019 for the temporary permissions regime, and it will apply for a maximum of three years. Firms will be given with ‘landing slots’ within which they’ll need to submit their authorisation application. While in the scheme, the FCA proposes to operate a system of substituted compliance for certain new rules which impose obligations, so that in most cases firms will not need to start complying with the full UK implementation of a given rule until the point at which they become UK authorised.
