Study punts financial services one-stop-shop in the UK

Legalbrief Today Issue 4862

The UK should create a one-stop-shop of financial services legislation to improve the accessibility of the law after Brexit, according to a study by Linklaters and the International Regulatory Strategy Group. A Law Gazette report quotes the study, published last week, which said rules relating to financial services are scattered between regulators, the Treasury and Parliament, and that the rulebooks of UK regulators ‘are not a one-stop-shop for detailed regulatory requirements’. The situation will ‘remain complex’ after Brexit, the study said. ‘A consolidation exercise should be considered to improve the accessibility of the law and lower compliance costs, by making it easier to locate specific regulatory requirements within the legal framework.’ Global head of financial regulation at Linklaters, Peter Bevan, warned that ‘it is a barrier to the market place if you cannot work out what the law is and how it applies to your business’. The need to consult ‘high priests’ in order to understand regulation could hamper trade negotiations, he added. The study also suggests that the Treasury and financial regulators work with the Law Commission to consider legal issues such as the appropriate review and consolidation of financial services legislation and related common law. ‘This will help address the need for additional scrutiny of the regulator’s legislative functions,’ it said. The study, which addresses key regulation concerns post-Brexit, stresses the need to scrutinise the UK’s financial regulators and to ensure accountability in the sector.

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