FCA and PRA Publishes Dear CEO Letter on Final Preparations for the End of Brexit Transition Period

On October 9, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) jointly published a Dear CEO letter to regulated firms regarding final preparations for the end of the Brexit transition period (the Letter).

The key areas addressed by the FCA and PRA in the Letter include:

• requiring each firm to continue making arrangements to prepare itself, its clients and customers on a range of potential scenarios at the end of the transition period;

• facilitating the continuity of business and contracts for affected clients — from repapering and on-boarding, to considering the impact of the changes and providing support in each client’s best interests; and

• implementing standard contractual clauses in relevant contracts that are used by European Economic Area (EEA) firms, as a means to comply with the EU’s cross-border personal data transfer laws after the expiration of the transition period (the European Commission is currently deciding on the adequacy of the UK’s data protection legislation).

The Letter is available here.

FCA Updates Webpage on Its Directory of Certified and Assessed Persons

On October 12, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) updated its webpage on its directory of certified and assessed persons (the Directory) to clarify data submission requirements for solo-regulated firms under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR) (the Webpage).

On the Webpage, the FCA states that from mid-December, it will periodically publish on the Directory data from solo-regulated firms as such data is submitted. Firms can submit their information prior to the March 31, 2021 deadline, if necessary.

Firms with more than 10 Directory persons can submit their data using the multiple add or amend submission form. By October 12, the FCA will contact firms who it believes has 10 or more Directory persons and inform the firms to use multiple add or amend data submission. Upon contact, the FCA will provide available dates and timeslots to use multiple data submission.

If a firm has not been contacted by October 14 regarding a multiple add or amend submission form or timeslot, but that firm has more than 10 Directory persons and believes the multiple add or amend submission is necessary, they should do the following:

• Firms submitting prior to the earliest publication date should submit between November 26 and December 4. Firms can use the single submission form to submit up to December 9 and their data will appear from mid-December.

• Firms submitting prior to the earliest publication date but before the deadline on March 31 should submit between January 11 and March 18, 2021. Firms can use the single submission form until the deadline.

Under the SM&CR, the FCA will publish and maintain the Directory on the Financial Services Register (Register). Consumers and professionals can check the details of key individuals working in financial services. The Directory will be published on the Register towards the end of 2020.

The Webpage is available here.