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As part of our sector-focused series, we have curated the key resources and points you need to know from this quarter’s legal updates. Understand the key news stories, practice notes, timelines and upcoming webinars specific to the Financial Services sector. 

The UK has left the EU: What does this mean for financial services?

The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020 and has now entered into an implementation period that is due to end on 31 December 2020. During that time, the UK will remain subject to EU financial services legislation, and EU passporting arrangements will continue to apply in the UK. This analysis considers what Brexit means for financial services during the implementation period and beyond.

We are now in an implementation period. What happens now? Read more…

Enforcement Trends for 2020: Interview with Sara Cody

Financial Services analysis: Sara Cody, Counsel PSL in the Financial Regulation Group at Linklaters, and a consulting editor of LexisPSL Financial Services, outlines the priorities for FCA Enforcement in the year ahead, considers the impact of the Senior Managers & Certification Regime (SM&CR) and discusses trends in FCA investigations. 

What do you see as the key focus for FCA Enforcement in 2020?

Key areas of focus in the coming year are likely to include operational resilience and cyber-security, along with anti-money laundering (AML) and a continued focus on culture. Read more…

5 key news stories

UK priorities for its future relationship with the EU—financial services ()

The UK government’s position paper outlining its priorities and approach for negotiations on its future relationship with the EU, published on 27 February 2020, included a proposal in general terms on how financial services should be covered in the Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) to be negotiated with the EU, using the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) as models. Equivalence in financial services was covered separately in a section on technical and other processes beyond the scope of the future relationship negotiations.

SM&CR: FCA updates Directory Persons webpage )

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has updated its Directory Persons webpage, setting out information for submitting data for the Directory, a public register that enables consumers, firms and other stakeholders to find information on key individuals working in financial services. In the update, the FCA notes that banks, building societies, credit unions and insurance companies must submit their data by 9 March 2020. All other solo-regulated firms must submit their data by 9 December 2020.

FCA sets out issues for firms to consider during Brexit transitional period ()

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has updated a webpage on Brexit which sets out issues for UK firms to consider during and after the transition period, which ends on 31 December 2020.

FCA reminds firms to update their details on Connect annually ()

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued a reminder that, from 31 January 2020, firms that come under Sup 16.10 reporting requirements have to check, amend or confirm the accuracy of their firm details annually, using the FCA’s Connect portal. They will need to do this within 60 business days of their accounting reference date (ARD).

FCA and Bank of England set out 2020 roadmap for LIBOR transition ()

The Bank of England (BoE), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Working Group on Sterling Risk-Free Reference Rates (RFRWG) have published a set of documents outlining priorities and milestones for 2020 on LIBOR transition. The FCA and the BoE are also encouraging market makers to change the market convention for sterling interest rate swaps from LIBOR to SONIA (the Sterling Overnight Index Average) in Q1 2020.

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Brexit focus - Commercial and practical help  

To help you cut through the noise, here are a couple of resources giving you the need-to-know information:

1. Brexit toolkit

Our Brexit toolkit draws together Brexit content for the practice areas that are relevant for you.

2. Brexit - Statutory Instruments (SI) tracker

This tracker lists all Brexit-related financial services statutory instruments (SIs), together with explanatory memoranda and other information for each SI, as well as links to primary sources.

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Click here for a free trial of our Brexit Toolkit.

Keeping up to date

Key dates you need to know, publications and announcements relating to legal issues in Financial Services.

Click to view individual timelines in the following topic areas:

Useful resources

Key content types in the Lexis®PSL Financial Services module.

Toolkits:

Timelines:

A series of chronological timelines monitoring the latest developments on:

(i) key EU financial services Regulations and Directives ie the creation of Level 1 texts, implementation of Level 2 (ITS/RTS), Level 3 (guidelines) and national implementation where applicable,

(ii) UK financial services regulation,

(iii) Brexit,

(iv) US-related financial services legislation (offering a summary of the legislation and its impact in various jurisdictions), and

(iv) timelines on other significant developments and regulatory regimes which impact financial services firms.

Practice notes give you information you need to hit the ground running on a new topic, or double-check to know the latest information in a area where law may have changed. Practice notes give you the practical guidance and reassurance that you are up-to-date and have covered everything you need to.

The Financial Services team's Essentials guides are a series of Practice Notes containing comprehensive overviews of key topics and/or EU Regulations and Directives covering all major points of interest and recent developments.

The Essentials Practice Notes serve as 'feeder notes' to further LexisPSL practical guidance and news content.

The Financial Services team's One minute guides are a series of Practice Notes containing a quick guide to key topics and/or EU Regulations and Directives. They are intended to get the reader up to speed quickly.

Webinars

Sign-up to upcoming and view on demand:

This year is set to be another year of great developments and challenges in banking and financial services practice and our diverse 2020 programme has been designed with this in mind to give practitioners all the knowledge and tools they will need to succeed.

An update on Fintech is our first webinar of the year, following that we have a free live webinar on the Equator principles.

We will also continue running ‘Brief’ webinars on banking and finance topics in throughout 2020 – be sure to keep your eyes peeled for those!

Get connected…

LexTalk®Financial Services: a Lexis®PSL community

Collaborate and network with a community of expert lawyers

LexTalk® is a new online community forum which gives Lexis®PSL subscribers the opportunity to post questions, hold conversations, participate in discussions and share best practice. It has been designed to provide a secure place for legal professionals to discuss legal developments, offer and receive peer support, and gain a sense of up to date market practice and advances in real-time. You can access and post questions on all of the dedicated practice area forums, including a dedicated community for Lexis®PSL Financial Services.

Click to sign up and meet like-minded community members, create a profile, connect, share, and start participating today! Alternatively, you can access LexTalk® on the key resources tab on your Practice Area home page.

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