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Global rules on foreign direct investment (FDI)
Cross-border acquisitions and investments increasingly trigger foreign direct investment (FDI) screening requirements.
United Kingdom | Publication | March 2023
The FCA and PRA are empowered under the Competition Act 1998 and the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 to carry out unannounced visits, commonly referred to as “dawn raids”, provided that certain legal criteria are met. These powers enable the regulators to enter and search a firm’s premises, conduct interviews with staff and to require production and take copies of documents onsite. Regulators may also visit staff working at home and seek documents and devices used for work purposes.
Given that fighting financial crime underpins the FCA’s key priorities, firms and their staff may be subject to dawn raids if the regulator has serious concerns in relation to financial crime activity. As noted in our Regulation Tomorrow blog, in January 2023 the FCA announced that it had commenced criminal proceedings against five individuals for conspiracy to commit insider dealing and money laundering following a multi-site search and arrest operation conducted by the FCA in March 2021 with the assistance of the Metropolitan Police.
Firms should have in place, and keep up to date and easily accessible, a documented policy and procedure which employees must follow in the event of an unannounced visit. To assist firms in this area we set out below a reminder of some of the key steps to take to prepare for and manage an unannounced visit from the FCA or PRA.
Where an unannounced or short notice visit is being carried out at domestic premises, the same principles apply and legal/ external counsel should be contacted immediately to request their presence at the premises.
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Cross-border acquisitions and investments increasingly trigger foreign direct investment (FDI) screening requirements.
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The recent publication of the Investment Association’s Second Interim Report on Fund Tokenisation and regular news articles in the financial press evidence continued enthusiasm for the adoption of digital technologies such as tokenisation amongst players in the financial services markets. Indeed, the global market for tokenised real-world assets is already currently estimated to be around $600 billion and has been predicted to reach $16 trillion by 2030.
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