According to articles which have been recently released in both the Financial Times and Bloomberg, the European parliament and the bloc’s national governments have agreed on a deal relating to changes to the ‘equivalence’ regime that grants access to EU markets to third countries, which will include the UK post-BREXIT. The aim of this decision is to make sure that EU authorities will have the tools necessary to stop regulatory arbitrage and will be able to monitor the activities of any third country firms. The changes made will apply to investment services including advice on merges and acquisitions and helping clients raise capital, and are moreover part of a wider reform of the regulation of asset managers, brokers and proprietary trading firms, with the EU planning on introducing a more tailor-made regime.
The updated market access rules will apply to the UK whether there is a ‘no deal’ exit, which now looks less likely, or a managed exit that includes a transitional period, as the trade deal that is in prospect will be based on the equivalence regime.
