On 1 May 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), together with HM Treasury, published a roadmap for the implementation of the Overseas Funds Regime (OFR).
Among other things, the roadmap states that:
- legislation to grant equivalent status to EEA UCITS, and to extend the temporary marketing permissions regime (TMPR) until the end of 2026, is expected in the second quarter of 2024.
- final rules concerning the OFR will come in July 2024.
- funds which are not in the TMPR can begin applying for recognition under the OFR as of September 2024.
- migration into the OFR of funds in the TMPR will start in October 2024 (for stand-alone schemes) and November 2024 (for umbrella schemes), respectively. This migration is set to end in September 2026.
The FCA will allocate landing slots to each fund operator “usually by alphabetical order of name” and upon allocation the fund operator has three months to migrate all funds into the OFR.
As part of this publication the FCA also announced an upcoming consultation on the applicability of UK sustainability requirements for overseas funds. This consultation is expected to start in the third quarter of 2024. Other matters which are to be determined include operational rules, retail disclosures and ongoing data collection.
Finally, the FCA confirms that the dedicated platform for OFR recognition will be Connect.
The full roadmap can be accessed in English here.
Please feel free to contact us should you require any additional information.
