Wednesday 10 October 2018 3:27 pm | Updated: Tuesday 21 May 2019 4:23 pm

Brexit means nearly 1,000 pages of Brexit from the Financial Conduct Authority

NULL

The City watchdog today made moves to make Brexit mean Brexit in its rules, publishing two enormous papers detailing changes to regulation in case of a no-deal Brexit.

The Financial Conduct Authority published a 781-page doorstopper consultation on changes to its handbook and the EU’s binding technical standards (BTS), alongside a comparatively slim 150-page consultation on the Temporary Permissions Regime which will allow EU firms to service UK clients for a limited period after Brexit, even if there is no deal.

The changes will correct “deficiencies” caused by Brexit, rather than introducing new policy, the FCA said.

The barrage of paperwork is necessary to transition firms onto rules governed solely by the FCA under the government’s withdrawal act, rather than the current arrangement in which European supervisors oversee some aspects of oversight of regulated financial firms.

The changes detailed in the consultation will allow the UK to have a “robust regulatory regime from day one” even if there is no Brexit deal, according to Nausicaa Delfas, executive director of international at the FCA.

“The FCA is planning to be ready for a range of scenarios,” Delfas said.

If no agreement is reached the UK will immediately leave the EU on 29 March 2019, meaning European supervisors would have no jurisdiction over British firms. That would leave vast swathes of rulemaking inapplicable to UK firms without FCA action.

Firms and other groups now have until 7 December to submit responses to the consultations.

The FCA said it does not “expect firms and others subject to our proposals to prepare now to implement any new requirements” on the handbook or BTS, as the Treasury has given “flexibility” to regulators.

However, some firms covered by the TPR may have to sign up to other schemes, notably the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), in which the government insures retail banking deposits.