FCA further extends the period to make notifications

Update

On 01 November 2019, in light of the further delay to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the FCA confirmed that:

• notifications to enter the UK’s Temporary Permissions Regime (TPR) by applicable firms and funds must now be made by no later than the end of 30 January 2020, and
• a fund manager wishing to update a notification as a result of this extension should email recognisedcis@fca.org.uk by no later than the end of 15 January 2020 to confirm this, including their FRN.

Following the UK’s exit from the EU, an operator of an EEA UCITS which has benefitted from the TPR will also be able to market new sub-funds in the UK, subject to certain conditions. For more information on these, please see this article.

The original deadline by which firms and funds who wish to enter into the TPR must notify the FCA was 28 March 2019. This was subsequently changed to 11 April 2019, to 30 May 2019, to 30 October 2019 and has now been further extended to 30 January 2020.

On its TPR webpage, the FCA also provides the following guidance:

• managers should wait until they have a full list of funds they wish to join the TPR before submitting a notification to the FCA;
• the FCA is not likely to establish any landing slots for EEA UCITS schemes until after 30 January 2021, and aims to release further details on this shortly after 31 January 2020 (Exit Day);
• the FCA plans to release details on the process for adding an EEA sub-fund to the TPR after Exit Day which forms part of an umbrella that notified to join the TPR prior to Exit Day. The process is anticipated to be similar to the current procedure which new sub-funds can use to notify for marketing in the UK; and
• to withdraw a notification, a firm must write to the FCA at: TPQueries@fca.org.uk before Exit Day. A firm that does this will not enter the TPR.

For further information please get in touch with your usual Simmons & Simmons contact.

For further information about the TPR, please see the following articles:

• The UK's Temporary Permissions Regime (TPR) - the FCA consults
• UK Temporary Permissions Regime - EEA UCITS to be permitted to add new sub-funds after Exit Day