On July 17, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a new webpage on passporting under the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II). Firms are required to make a passporting application under MiFID II if they intend to be conducting European Economic Area (EEA) activities that have been implemented as new MiFID II activities (such as operating an organized trading facility (OTF)), or if they will become newly authorized under MiFID II and need to passport after January 3, 2018.
The FCA recommends that firms should:
- submit branch passport notifications as soon as possible after the MiFID II passporting gateway opens on July 31; and
- submit services passport notifications by December 2 to help the FCA to assess notifications and send them to relevant EEA regulators before MiFID II goes into effect on January 3, 2018.
The webpage contains links to the forms for the different types of notice:
- branch passport—notice of intention to establish a branch or change branch particulars in another EEA state;
- service passport—notice of intention to provide cross-border services and activities in another EEA state;
- multilateral trading facility (MTF)/OTF—notice of intention to provide arrangements to facilitate the access to an MTF or OTF from another EEA state; and
- tied agent—notice of intention to use a tied agent established in another EEA state or to amend the details of a tied agent established in another EEA state.
The webpage is available here.