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On December 13, 2017, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Markets in Financial Instruments) (No. 2) Regulations 2017 were published, and will take effect mainly from January 3, 2018. Some technical provisions will come into force a day earlier, on January 2, 2018, for the purpose of making corrections to other legislation in advance of the implementation date for the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive.
The Regulations amend the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001 to clarify the position in domestic law of those firms that deal on own account in commodity derivatives or emission allowances (or their derivatives) and that wish to take advantage of the exemption set out in MiFID II, but are awaiting information to make the threshold calculation used to establish if they qualify for the exemption. The Regulations also align the domestic regime with the passporting provisions of MiFID II, by extending the transitional provisions of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) Order 2017 that relate to structured deposits to EEA firms that are passporting into the United Kingdom. This will allow an EEA firm that is passporting into the United Kingdom to notify the appropriate regulator by April 1, 2018 that it wishes to carry on a permitted activity in relation to structured deposits.
The Regulations make consequential amendments to other secondary legislation to replace "MiFID" with "MiFID II" and also make a number of corrections to the text of the main implementing regulations for MiFID II, namely the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Markets in Financial Instruments) Regulations 2017. The Regulations also make amendments to correct drafting errors in some of the provisions of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 that implement provisions relating to the powers of national regulators and the imposition of administrative sanctions for contraventions of the Market Abuse Regulation.
The Regulations (S.I. 2017 No. 1255) are available at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/1255/pdfs/uksi_20171255_en.pdf and the explanatory memorandum to the Regulations is available at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/1255/pdfs/uksiem_20171255_en.pdf.
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