On January 28, the UK Government published the Financial Services (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2020 (the Regulations). This is in response to the passing by the UK Parliament of the Withdrawal Act on Thursday last week, and in anticipation of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU (and start of the implementation period) on January 31 (for more information, please see the January 24 edition of Corporate & Financial Weekly Digest).

As part of its preparations for Brexit, the UK Government passed a number of regulations to create temporary permissions and transitional regimes for the financial services sector. The purpose of the Regulations is to confirm that these temporary permissions and transitional regimes will take effect from the expiration of the implementation period, which is expected to end on December 31.

In particular, the Regulations amend the following secondary UK legislation:

• the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 (please see the November 30, 2018 edition of Corporate & Financial Weekly Digest);

• the Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) Regulations 2013;

• the Payment Services Regulations 2017;

• the Data Reporting Services Regulations 2017;

• the EEA Passport Rights (Amendment, etc., and Transitional Provisions (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 (please see the November 9, 2018 edition of Corporate & Financial Weekly Digest);

• the Central Counterparties (Amendment, etc., and Transitional Provisions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 (please see the October 5, 2018 edition of Corporate & Financial Weekly Digest);

• the Electronic Money, Payment Services and Payment Systems (Amendment and Transitional Provisions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018;

• the Trade Repositories (Amendment and Transitional Provision) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 (please see the October 12, 2018 edition of Corporate & Financial Weekly Digest);

• the Central Securities Depositories (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018;

• the Credit Rating Agencies (Amendments, etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019;

• the Collective Investment Schemes (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (please see the February 22, 2019 edition of Corporate & Financial Weekly Digest); and

• the Financial Markets and Insolvency (Amendment and Transitional Provision) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019.

The Regulations are available here and the explanatory memorandum is available here.