On November 8, the House of Commons Treasury Committee published a letter (Letter) it had received from Andrew Bailey, Chief Executive of the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) (dated October 28). The Letter had been prepared in response to a number of questions raised at a Treasury Select Committee hearing held on July 20 (which focused on the regulatory landscape for financial services and passporting regimes post-Brexit).

The Letter covers a number of topics including: (1) cross-border trade in financial services; (2) the role of passporting; (3) equivalence frameworks for so-called third countries (meaning non-EU and non-EEA countries); (4) asset management under the World Trade Organization framework; (5) asset management and third-country passporting; (6) what the optimal outcome for UK financial services from the UK’s exit negotiations might look like; (7) potential advantages of the United Kingdom operating outside of the European Union; and (8) the FCA’s ongoing role in improving global standards through participation in international organizations such as the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

The Letter likely will be of interest to UK asset managers and other financial services firms in the United Kingdom that use their single-market passport rights to provide services cross-border within the European Union.

 A copy of the Letter is available here.