On March 21, The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Controllers) Regulations 2009 (No 534) will implement the Acquisitions Directive in the UK, as part of the European Commission's drive to harmonise supervision of acquiring qualifying holdings in the banking, insurance and securities sectors. It aims to prevent any partisan hindering of otherwise viable transactions by unreasonable requirements by any member state. It amends Part XII (sections 178-191), section 422 and Chapter 1A of Part 18 FSMA and the Supervision Manual (Controllers) (Amendment) Instrument 2009 amends the Glossary, SUP Chapter 11 and REC.
There will then be a transparent process for the prudential assessment of a proposed acquisition by a regulator throughout the EU. And being a maximum harmonisation measure, no state will be able to impose more onerous requirements (gold plating).
The Directive applies to proposed acquisitions of credit institutions, insurance, life assurance and reinsurance undertakings, investment firms and...