On 21 January 2019, there was published on the legislation.gov.uk website a draft of The Public Record, Disclosure of Information and Co-operation (Financial Services) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. The draft statutory instrument amends Part 23 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Disclosure of Confidential Information) Regulations 2001 (the Disclosure Regulations) which set out the gateways for disclosing confidential information within the UK, to EEA regulatory authorities and to third-country regulatory authorities. The draft statutory instrument also amends UK legislation that applies the Disclosure Regulations, in a modified form, to different financial services regimes. In addition, the draft statutory instrument amends retained direct EU legislation. The amendments are intended to ensure that confidential information can continue to be disclosed by UK regulators from exit day. The draft statutory instrument also makes amendments to correct some minor errors in domestic legislation which do not arise from the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. These amendments are made undersection 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972, section 349 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA) and section 92 of the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013 (FSBRA 2013).
Chapter 1 of Part 2 of the draft statutory instrument makes amendments to UK primary legislation: FSMA and the FSBRA 2013. These are minor amendments which remove or amend specific references to EU member states, bodies and instruments.
Chapter 2 of Part 2 makes amendments to the Disclosure Regulations. References in the Disclosure Regulations to EU legislation are amended and redefined so that they instead refer to the relevant UK versions of that legislation. Amendments are also made to definitions which currently operate on the basis that the UK is an EU member state. Amendments are also made to secondary legislation that applies, in a modified form, the Disclosure Regulations. This includes the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 and the Payment Services Regulations 2017.
Chapter 3 of Part 2 of the draft statutory instrument amends certain pieces of retained direct EU legislation to ensure that the professional secrecy provisions that appear in this legislation reflect the approach taken in the Disclosure Regulations to fix deficiencies relating to the disclosure of confidential information.
Part 3 of the draft statutory instrument amends the Disclosure Regulations and other pieces of secondary legislation to correct minor errors or inconsistencies in the existing legislation, and which is not directly related to the UK withdrawal from the EU.
You can track the financial services Brexit EU Exit statutory instruments (as well as gain access to our Brexit resources) on our Brexit Pathfinder hub. Registration is free via the NRF Institute portal. Conformed copies of the EU Exit statutory instruments are available exclusively through our PathfinderPLUS service. To gain access to PathfinderPLUS, please contact Jochen Vester or Simon Lovegrove.