UK’s Overseas Funds Regime comes into force

On 21 February 2022, the Financial Services Act 2021 (Commencement No 4) Regulations 2022 (the Regulations) were published.

With one exception (see below) the Regulations set 23 February 2022 as the date on which the UK’s Overseas Funds Regime (OFR) comes into force.

This, though, does not mean that the OFR is yet ready to use. The underlying processes and procedures are still being built out and, as a result, it will be some time before firms can start to make applications under the new regime – we will be monitoring the situation and reporting back in due course.

For a summary of the key provisions of the OFR, see our article here.

The OFR is contained in the following sections of the Financial Services Act 2021 (the FS Act):

• s.24 and Schedule 9 (collective investment schemes (CIS) authorised in approved countries)
• s.25 (individually recognised overseas CIS)
• s.26 (money market funds (MMFs) authorised in approved countries).

These provisions in the FS Act, in turn, amend various parts of FSMA 2000.

The exception mentioned above is that s.25(4)(a) of the FS Act, which deals with the requirement under s.277 of FSMA to tell the FCA of a proposed alteration to an individually recognised overseas CIS – this provision comes into force on 1 January 2023.