The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Overseas Funds Regime) (Equivalence) (European Economic Area) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/635) were made on May 13, 2024 and enter into force on July 16, 2024. Established by the Financial Services Act 2021, the Overseas Funds Regime is an equivalence framework for allowing overseas funds to market into the U.K. The OFR is a new, efficient way for overseas funds to market as it does not require a detailed assessment by the Financial Conduct Authority of each individual fund application, which was the only process available prior to the OFR.
The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Overseas Funds Regime) (Equivalence) (European Economic Area) Regulations 2024 grant equivalence to each EEA state for Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities funds, except for those that are authorized as Money Market Funds. The UCITS can be stand-alone schemes or sub-funds.
Currently, EEA funds market into the U.K. using the Temporary Marketing Permissions Regime. The TMPR is due to expire at the end of 2025, subject to legislation extending that date to the end of 2026. Unlike the TMPR, an equivalence decision under the OFR does not have an expiry date. In addition, the TMPR only captures standalone and umbrella UCITS funds that were marketing to U.K. clients using a UCITS passport (while the U.K. was in the EU) and who applied to the FCA to continue doing so.
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