On 19 March, the government announced it had agreed to an initial deal for the UK to withdraw from the EU.
The transition period will start on 29 March 2019 and end on 31 December 2020.
Pimfa warning
Pimfa, one of the UK’s leading trade association for the personal investment management and financial advice sector, has now warned it believes this transition period is an insufficient amount of time.
John Barrass, EU expert and deputy chief executive at Pimfa, said: “This may allow insufficient time to negotiate the final UK/EU Comprehensive Agreement which will govern our future relationship after transition”.
Pimfa has advocated for a flexible transition end, determined by the completion and coming into force of the Comprehensive Agreement, which advisory firms can then use to plan ahead, Barrass said.
“We welcome reports suggesting that an explicit clause allowing for a limited extension for this purpose could be included in the final text,” Barrass said.
ABI & EFPA
Other industry bodies from both the UK and EU have also responded to the transition deal.
The European Financial Planning Association’s (Efpa) executive manager Karim Zouhdi said: “More work is needed on certain commitments on the economic and regulatory sides, never mind the specific business impact on financial advice”.
“We should remember that any transitional agreement, which is conditional in both sides, should ratify a final withdrawal treaty in order to help for post-Brexit future relationships,” Zouhdi said.
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) director general Huw Evans said it is a “relief” to hear the transition deal could be signed off this week by the EU Council.
“With annual insurance contracts coming up for renewal it was critical to provide some temporary certainty to insurance customers on issues like driving in the EU and the EHIC.
“However, we still need to see agreement that EU and UK regulators can fully co-operate during this period so they can begin to solve issues like continuity of insurance contracts,” Evans said.
