FCA

Recent Articles

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  05.05.2023

  FCA con­firms changes to UK equity mar­kets trans­par­ency re­gime and fi­nal­ises im­ple­ment­a­tion timetable

  In PS23/4: Improving Equity Secondary Markets, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has confirmed a range of targeted changes to the UK’s post-trade transparency regime, pre-trade transparency waivers and tick size regime for equity instruments that it consulted on in July 2022. The introduction of the new designated reporter (DR) regime will also affect trading in non-equity instruments. The FCA also provides an update on potential further reforms to operational resilience standards for trading venues and the retail service provider model.Firms will be pleased to see that the FCA has listened...

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  04.05.2023

  FCA pub­lishes con­sulta­tion pa­per on pro­posed re­forms to the UK list­ing re­gime

  On 3 May 2023 the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) published its consultation paper on the proposed UK equity listing rule reforms (and feedback to its discussion paper published in May 2022). The consultation paper follows extensive engagement on the UK listing regime and the recommendations from the UK Listing Review. It represents a substantial and welcome overhaul of the current listing regime, with the aim of making UK equity capital markets more competitive with other markets and attractive to companies considering an IPO. Key ProposalsThe consultation paper sets out a...

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  14.04.2023

  Re­view of the Seni­or Man­agers and Cer­ti­fic­a­tion Re­gime (SM&CR)

  On 30 March 2023, the Prudential Regulation Authority (“PRA”) and Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) (the PRA and FCA together being the “Regulators”) published a joint Discussion Paper (DP1/23) seeking input on potential ways to improve the Senior Managers & Certification Regime (“SM&CR” or the “Regime”). HMT has also separately launched a Call for Evidence to review legislative aspects of the regime. In December 2022, the government announced, as part of the Edinburgh Reforms, that HMT and the Regulators...

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  11.04.2023

  FCA pub­lishes No­tice of Un­der­tak­ing and voices com­mit­ment to Con­sumer Duty

  On 31 March 2023, the FCA published a Notice of Undertaking (the “Undertaking”) given by Policy Excess Insure Ltd (trading as Nova Direct) (“Policy Excess Insure”) under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (“the Act”).BackgroundAmong other things, the Act sets out the UK rules on unfair terms in consumer contracts. A term of a consumer contract is “unfair” for the purposes of the Act where, contrary to the requirement of good faith, the term causes a significant imbalance in the parties’ rights and obligations under the contract, to the detriment of...

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  29.03.2023

  ESMA Pub­lic State­ment on de­riv­at­ives on frac­tions of shares

  On 28 March 2023, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a Public Statement on derivatives on fractions of shares. Fractional share trading has risen in popularity in the UK and European markets in recent years, enabling retail investors to get direct exposure to tech companies and other issuers whose shares may be relatively expensive and which have traditionally been more frequently accessed indirectly through mutual funds. This exposure can be achieved through a trust-based or “co-ownership” model, under which multiple clients each have a beneficial claim...

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  13.03.2023

  Gov­ern­ment con­sulta­tion on reg­u­la­tion of cryptoassets deals with is­su­ance and dis­clos­ures of cryptoassets with­in the UK

  On 1st February 2023, His Majesty’s Treasury (“HMT”) published a comprehensive consultation paper (“Consultation Paper”) that sets out the UK Government’s (“Government”) intention to bring cryptoassets and cryptoasset related activities within the scope of the UK financial services regulatory regime, marking the next phase of the Government’s approach to regulating cryptoassets. We have published a summary of the Consultation Paper here, with the proposals including a new regulatory regime for the creation, issuance and distribution...

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