BOE: Non-UK Firms' Approval Can Wait To End Brexit Transition

-BOE Says Non-UK Firms Can Plan On Delaying Authorisation Until End of Brexit

Transition (Dec 2020)

By David Robinson

     LONDON (MNI) - The Bank of England welcomed the provisional agreement

between the UK and EU over a Brexit transition period and told overseas

institutions that they could plan on the basis that they had until the end of

the transition period to get authorisation to operate under the new

arrangements.

     The Bank's announcement Wednesday is designed to ease the pressure on

non-UK financial institutions that want to keep operating here post-Brexit, by

stressing that the deadline for authorisation has been pushed back.

     The provisional transitional deal offers an interim period through to

December 2020 after the UK leaves the EU in March 2019 under which the country

will continue to operate under EU law, effectively as a rule taker.

     "The Bank has made clear that it would be difficult, ahead of March 2019,

for all financial institutions to have completed all of the necessary steps

required to mitigate the risks to the provision of financial services in the EU

and the UK," it said in a statement.

     Following the provisional transitional deal "the Bank has made clear to

relevant firms that they may plan on the assumption that UK authorisation or

recognition will only be needed by the end of the implementation period," it

said.

     The Bank statement was not accompanied by any reciprocal statement by the

EU setting out what the authorisation timetable for UK financial institutions

operating on the continent would be.

     The Bank has repeatedly made clear that if favours an open financial sector

post-Brexit, but it faces a battle to help iron out post Brexit regulatory

details. The UK and EU are seemingly at odds over mutual recognition, a system

based on common objectives for the two regulatory systems but with some freedom

over precise rule setting, with EU negotiators so far off little encouragement

on it.

--MNI London Bureau; tel: +44 203-586-2223; email: david.robinson@marketnews.com

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