The UK officially left the European Union on 31 January 2020, but nothing changed until the end of the transition period on 31 December. As the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the UK and the EU was only finalised on 24 December 2020, when it became clear that financial services were almost completely excluded, there are many elements still to be determined before we know the full long-term impact on the sector. However, there are some specific elements that affect the legal structure and marketing of UK and EU investment funds now, which need to be considered in openfunds:
Temporary Permissions Regime (TPR) and Temporary Marketing Permissions Regime (TMPR)
The FCA created the TPR and TMPR to allow EU/EEA-based firms and investment funds that previously had operations in or passported into the UK to continue operating within the scope of those previous passport permissions for a limited period after the end of the transition period, provided they had registered for the TPR/TMPR by 30 December 2020. openfunds introduced field OFST701044 Is UK TPR Registered with v1.26.1 to flag funds registered for the TPR/TMPR. We have since received greater clarity from the FCA that the TPR applies to firms and the TMPR to funds, so the field name will be changed to Is UK TMPR Registered in v1.27 of openfunds.
UK UCITS
The UK is no longer part of the EU’s UCITS framework. However, the FCA has retained the UCITS rulebook for UK domiciled funds, thereby creating a category of fund known as UK UCITS, even though, from the EU’s perspective, they are third country Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs). UK UCITS will continue to publish UCITS Key Investor Information Documents (KIIDs) and need to adhere to the existing rules on investment and borrowing powers. To flag such funds, which will be henceforth flagged as “AIF” rather than “UCITS” in field OFST160040 Type Of EU Directive, openfunds will introduce the field OFST701045 Is UK UCITS Fund, whose details may be found at https://openfunds.org/OFST701045. Fields would normally not be released outside of openfunds versions, but with the urgency of this data and openfunds v1.27 not planned for release until April OFST701045 Is UK UCITS Fund will be released for use immediately, prior to the official publishing of v1.27.