EC and UK have reportedly reached a breakthrough
The European Commission and the UK have reportedly reached a breakthrough on future financial services co-operation (i.e. post Brexit) to meet their end-Q1 deadline.
UK / EU Memorandum of Understanding: Technical negotiations concluded
“Technical discussions on the text of the Memorandum of Understanding, which was agreed in a Joint Declaration on Financial Services Regulatory Cooperation alongside the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, have now been concluded.
Formal steps need to be undertaken on both sides before the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) can be signed but it is expected that this can be done expeditiously.
The MoU, once signed, creates the framework for voluntary regulatory cooperation in financial services between the UK and the EU. The MoU will establish the Joint UK-EU Financial Regulatory Forum, which will serve as a platform to facilitate dialogue on financial services issues.”
Although the document has yet to officially appear (and there remains no formal statement from the EC), there has been variable media coverage on what the MoU represents moving forward (and in one instance, what it actually contains).
- Financial Times: the agreement paves the way for EC to contemplate “future market access rights for the City of London“
- City AM: the MoU is a “far cry” from regulatory equivalence, but a “step in the right direction“. It is said to be similar to the existing framework between the EU and US.
- Daily Telegraph: reported legal opinion that “the reality is likely to be limited to a few wholesale areas, contingent on good behaviour [by the UK] and unilaterally revocable [by the EC].”