The political activity around Brexit continues, with the coming week seeing a “Brexit cabinet meeting” in the UK (see here on the BBC web site) following a meeting between the parties last week (see here on the BBC web site). In addition, there have been some more specific developments of interest since our last post (see here). The UK European Withdrawal Bill has also now become law, as reported here on the Regulation Tomorrow section of the Norton Rose Fulbright web site.
The issue of the continuity of derivatives contracts has once again been raised by the Bank of England, as reported here on the Bloomberg web site. There has as yet been no reciprocation of the UK commitment to grant temporary permissions in order to avoid this risk (amongst other things). This article on the Reuters web site refers to Bank of England comments stating that on the UK side, many financial institutions are making preparations for a “disorderly Brexit”. The comments are in response to this opinion published by the European Banking Authority which argues that financial institutions should speed up their Brexit preparations.
The question of “equivalence” continues to be discussed. This article on the Reuters web site, reports that EU officials have stated that no special financial services arrangement will be put in place by the EU with the UK. This post on the Reg Tech FS site by Tom Bicknell looks at the issue in more detail. The issue of relying on equivalence and the general issue of re calibrating MiFID II after Brexit is also reported on in this article on the Tabb Group web site written by Tim Cave.
On the energy side of regulation, there are concerns as to the impact of Brexit on the use of future inter-connectors, as reported here on the Reuters site. General concerns in the GB Energy market are expressed in this article on the Utility Week web site. There is also uncertainty as to the UKs meeting of EU clean energy targets after Brexit, as reported here on the Climate Change news web site. However, Eurelectric has argued in this paper that it would be beneficial for the UK to stay inside the Internal Energy Market. The UK’s Confederation of Business and Industry (CBI) has also expressed a wish for close relations after Brexit, as reported here on the Power Engineering International web site.
The coming weeks will see several milestones in terms of the Brexit process. Many in the sector will also be hoping that some political decisions give an indication of how to deal with more practical matters affecting the issues covered on this blog. Those wishing to discuss the issues in more specific detail are welcome to contact ETR Advisory at info@etr-advisory.com.