Brexit

BREXIT – it’s more than just moving

BREXIT presents a host of challenges as well as opportunities. In relation to regulatory compliance, whether a firm is relocating to the EU-27 from the UK or whether EU firms are looking to expand or set up new “anchor” presences in the UK or other non-EU jurisdictions that are, when viewed from the EU, “Third Countries”, there are a wealth of issues that require pragmatic regulatory advice on both sides of the divide. To further complicate matters, the ECB-SSM, the European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, ESMA and EIOPA) as well as range of national competent authorities that together make up the European System of Financial Supervision, have published very strict and detailed “Supervisory Principles on Relocations” (SPoRs). These amend and/or supplement a range of existing EU rules, including as applied in the Banking Union, and will require careful consideration. Regardless of where a firm is relocating business to and regardless of what stage of the supervisory approval process one is in, SPoRs merit specialist advice to help firms in remaining compliant and doing so in an agile fashion. It is also about structuring sustainable businesses that look beyond BREXIT.

Insights

ESMA’s reminder on reverse solicitation principles and its supervisory expectations

January 19, 2021

EU: This Client Alert looks at the impact of the European Securities and Markets Authority public statement published on January 13, 2021 on non-EU/EEA and thus UK firms’ use of reverse solicitation to access EU markets and clients. It is expected that other EU as well as national-level authorities will follow with similar statements that may further sharpen the supervisory scrutiny imposed on firms and their operations.