On October 15, 2015, the PRA published a consultation paper on the implementation of ring-fencing for core UK financial services and activities, as required under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Core activities are defined as: (i) facilities for accepting deposits or other payments into an account and provided in the course of carrying on the core activity of accepting deposits; (ii) facilities for withdrawing money or making payments from such an account; and (iii) overdraft facilities in connection with such an account. In this consultation, the PRA sets out new proposals for ring-fencing policies, including on: (i) prudential requirements for subsidiaries of Ring-Fenced Bodies; (ii) prudential requirements for other potential affiliates that would not necessarily be regulated by the PRA; (iii) the application of the systemic risk buffer for RFBs; (iv) intragroup prudential arrangements for groups containing RFBs and proposals on concessions, distributions, double leverage and intragroup holdings of capital; and (v) the use of financial market infrastructures including inter-bank payment systems, Central Securities Depositories and CCPs. The proposals are relevant to all firms that are required to ring-fence their core activities before the implementation date of January 1, 2019 (which are firms, broadly speaking, with at least £25 billion of core deposits). The proposals are also relevant to growing firms that expect to meet this threshold by 2019. The PRA expects firms that currently meet the core deposits threshold of £25 billion to submit near-final plans to their PRA and Financial Conduct Authority supervisors, taking into consideration the proposals in this consultation paper, by January 29, 2016. Growing firms expecting to meet this threshold by 2019 must determine whether such a submission would be appropriate for them by consulting with their supervisors. The PRA intends to publish a policy statement, final rules and supervisory statements by mid-2016 setting out the feedback to this consultation. Comments on the consultation paper are due by January 15, 2016.
The consultation is available at: http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/pra/Documents/publications/cp/2015/cp3715.pdf.
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