On December 4, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced changes, effective from the same date, to Connect, its online system that is used by firms to make various applications and notifications to the FCA. The changes reflect the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive legal framework (MiFID II), in anticipation of the implementation of MiFID II on January 3, 2018.

Firms may still submit MiFID passport notifications using Connect but, because of the changes, firms must submit one passport notification for each country in which they intend to provide cross-border services. However, it will not be possible to select certain activities/ instruments that are specific to MiFID II, such as operating an organized trading facility or emission allowances, until January 3, 2018.

As part of the FCA’s transitional arrangements, firms that wish to passport new MiFID II activities or firms that will become newly authorized under MiFID II, will be able to submit MiFID II passporting forms via email to MiFID.Passport@fca.org.uk. The FCA will monitor their mailbox until January 2, 2018, but cannot guarantee that any passport notifications received after December 3 will be processed by January 3, 2018.

Further information is available here.