Big Ben might not bong in real life on January 31, but advisers can look forward to some virtual bonging.
However, whether this refers to a recording of the bell itself or to alarm bells sounding as a result of regulators and policy-makers issuing warnings on cross-border trade from February 1 remains to be seen.
Just last week, Nausicaa Delfas, executive director of international at the Financial Conduct Authority told attendees at a City law firm: “Our future trading relationship with the EU is still to be negotiated and agreed, and we are just at the beginning”.
At the beginning. These words should make bells ring, undoubtedly. If the regulator is only just starting to make sense of which rules and regulations it must confirm or devolve from, the industry it regulates will, by default, end up in a very confused period.
Not for nothing have many industry commentators called for clarity, with urgency, over what regulations must be kept and which ones need to be readjusted in the light of the UK’s new relationship (working or otherwise) with the EU.
This could have ramifications for everyone, whether they are buying a property abroad, investing money cross-jurisdictions, becoming subject to various on-shore and offshore tax regulations, or advising international clients or business owners.
And not to mention the already Laocoon-like entanglements of Mifid II on the wealth management industry.
Ms Delfas said: “Firms still need to ensure they are prepared for a range of scenarios that may happen at the end of 2020 – and this includes the scenario in which the activities they conduct might not be covered by agreements reached between the UK and the EU.”
This seems very much like a case of: get planning now, for everything, even for what you do not think will happen, and then we will see where we are in December.
Good advice, even if its scope is vague – but how helpful is this going to be in practice?
Sound the alarm!
