Six-Month Extension to Article 50

The EU has agreed to grant the UK a six-month extension to the Article 50 process. This a flexible extension whereby if the UK ratifies the existing agreement it may leave before the new deadline of 31 October 2019. The EU leaders have stressed that the UK will need to hold European Parliament elections if it is still a member of the EU between the 23 and the 26 May 2019. If they fail to do so they will be forced to leave the EU on the 1 June 2019.

We are currently assessing the impact of this new delay, with particular focus on clarifying what this means for the Temporary Permissions Regime, of which a large number of clients have availed themselves. When the original short delay from 29 March 2019 to 12 April 2019 was announced, the FCA did note a mechanism whereby participants could update their application and we anticipate that will likely be replicated.