European Union: UK Post-Brexit EU Financial Services Legislation

Shearman & Sterling is today making available consolidated versions of EU legislation showing the proposed U.K. on-shored versions. The batch of legislation that will be available at launch today comprises consolidated post-Brexit U.K. versions of:

• The Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive/Banking Act 2009.
• The Capital Requirements Regulation.
• The European Markets Infrastructure Regulation.
• The Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation.

These are found within our Brexit Resource Centerwebsite.

We will be adding new consolidated legislation to this maintained resource in due course.

Background

The U.K. government has been publishing statutory instruments (U.K. secondary legislation) onshoring and amending EU regulations after Brexit. This is being done under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, so as to ensure a workable U.K. statute book after Brexit. This "onshoring" legislation is not intended to introduce policy changes unrelated to technically implementing the U.K.’s EU withdrawal. The purpose is to correct a limited range of deficiencies (as defined in the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018) in the directly applicable EU Regulations that will be retained on exit and in the existing U.K. law that implements the requirements of EU Directives. However, necessarily, there are various decision points that U.K. legislators have needed to take in relation to third country issues and relationships.

The onshoring legislation has been designed to adapt to all potential outcomes to the negotiations for the U.K.'s withdrawal. The statutory instruments have been specifically drafted so that they come into operation either on exit day if there is a “no deal” scenario where the U.K. leaves the EU without a ratified withdrawal agreement, or at the end of any negotiated transitional, or “implementation,” period agreed as part of the U.K.-EU Withdrawal Agreement. As at the time of writing, the U.K. and EU's negotiators have agreed in principle the technical terms of the Withdrawal Agreement¹. However, approval of those terms must be obtained from the U.K. Parliament as well as the EU27, which may take some weeks and is of uncertain outcome. The onshoring legislation has largely been designed for a "no deal" Brexit. However, once any deal is finalized, it is likely to take largely the same form.

Changes to Financial Services Law and Technical Standards for Brexit

The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 sets out an enhanced scrutiny procedure. Secondary legislation used to amend certain retained EU law will be subject to the affirmative scrutiny procedure which requires the approval of both Houses of Parliament before it is made. Some of the onshoring legislation has been published in draft form, while other parts have been laid before Parliament already. In the financial services sector, around 70 separate statutory instruments are expected eventually to be made to implement Brexit.

In addition, HM Treasury has delegated responsibility to the Financial Conduct Authority, the Prudential Regulation Authority, the Bank of England and the Payment Systems Regulator for correcting deficiencies in the Binding Technical Standards that supplement primary EU legislation and for maintaining them after Brexit. Amendments to such technical standards for U.K. purposes will therefore take place via regulatory rulebook changes and not by statutory instrument. In some cases a single regulator has been designated as the responsible authority and in other cases more than one regulator has responsibility. The regulators have issued their initial consultations in line with the publication of statutory instruments ^[2] . A number of draft “EU Exit” instruments have been published as part of these consultations and more will follow later in the year. Where multiple regulators have responsibility for onshoring the BTS, one regulator has consulted on the proposed changes, to avoid duplicative consultations. We also include links to these consultation versions on our site. However, since these are presented already as consolidated mark-ups by the regulators themselves, we do not supplement the relevant materials in our website.

Annex: Consolidated Legislation

Footnote

1 The following documents were published on November 14, 2018:

• Draft Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, available here.
• Outline Of The Political Declaration Setting Out The Framework For The Future Relationship Between The European Union And The United Kingdom, available here.
• Joint Statement from the EU and U.K. negotiators, available here.

2 The following regulatory consultations have been published:

• FCA CP18/28 (published 10 October 2018): View the consultation paper (FCA CP 18/28).
• PRA CP 26/18 (published 25 October 2018): View the consultation paper (PRA CP 26/18) and appendices.
• BoE’s Consultation for Financial Markets Infrastructure (published 25 October 2018): View the consultation paper and appendices.
• BoE’s Consultation on Resolution (published 25 October 2018): View the consultation paper and appendix.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.