Consultation outcome

Overseas funds regime: a consultation

From:: HM Treasury
Published: 11 March 2020
Last updated: 10 October 2022 — See all updates

Detail of outcome

The overseas funds regime aims to deliver on the government’s commitment to introduce a more streamlined regime for overseas investment funds to market to UK retail investors. The government received responses to the consultation from 20 organisations.

This document summarises the responses to the consultation and explains the government’s approach to legislating for the overseas funds regime after considering those views. It is designed to be read in conjunction with the consultation document, which provides a detailed overview of the government’s proposals.

The final policy is reflected in the Financial Services Bill, which was introduced in Parliament on 21 October.

The government has now commenced its equivalence assessment of the EU and EEA under the Overseas Funds Regime.

Original consultation

Consultation description

Asset managers often set up their investment funds internationally, marketing their funds both to investors in the UK and around the world. Many of the investment funds currently marketed in the UK are domiciled in the EU, gaining market access into the UK through the EU passporting regime. Following the UK’s departure from the EU, the passporting regime will cease at the end of the transition period. The Government has introduced a temporary regime to allow EU funds to continue marketing in the UK in a similar way for a limited time after the end of the Transition Period, after which the funds will have to gain permanent market access into the UK.

This consultation sets out the government’s proposal for a new process for allowing investment funds domiciled overseas to be sold to UK investors, to replace the existing regime, which is not viable over the long-term. The proposed ‘overseas funds regime’ will introduce two new regimes based on the principle of equivalence: one for retail investment funds and one for money market funds.

Documents