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Ireland
On 31 October 2023, the Screening of Third Country Transactions Act 2023 (the “Act”), which establishes a new foreign direct investment ("FDI") screening regime in Ireland, was enacted.
United Kingdom | Publication | June 2023
On June 21, 2023, the DWP published a review of the Conditions for Transfers Regulations 2021, 18 months after they came into force.
The regulations were intended to reduce the risk of pension scams by limiting a member's statutory right to transfer to another pension scheme. Broadly speaking, trustees may only transfer a member's cash equivalent if they conclude that either:
As part of its review, the DWP gathered feedback on the effectiveness of the Regulations from over 20 schemes, administrators and industry bodies, including data covering approximately 290,000 transfers completed in 2022. The data indicated 94 per cent of transfers were completed under the first condition or the second condition where no flags were present, while 5 per cent of transfers were completed outside the regulations (on a contractual or discretionary basis).
Among 2,400 transfers triggering an amber flag, this most often arose where overseas investments (57 per cent) or high-risk or unregulated investments (15 per cent) were included in the receiving scheme. Only 300 transfers were given a red flag. The commonest trigger was the member failing to provide required information (47 per cent).
Generally, feedback was that the policy intent underlying the regulations was appropriate and the regulations were the best way to deliver this. However, specific concerns were raised around the “overseas investment amber flag” which sometimes needs to be raised even where there were no real concerns, and the “incentives red flag” which is blocking transfers on account of differing interpretations among providers.
Following the review, the DWP has committed to conducting further work with the pensions industry and the Regulator to consider if the transfer process could be improved, without undermining the policy intent. The DWP needs to strike a balance between protection for pension savers and the ability to make transfer decisions without being blocked or impeded by delays. Unfortunately, no timescale has been given for completion of the DWP’s additional work.
Publication
On 31 October 2023, the Screening of Third Country Transactions Act 2023 (the “Act”), which establishes a new foreign direct investment ("FDI") screening regime in Ireland, was enacted.
Publication
The EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation, or FSR, is intended to prevent or remedy distortions of the EU internal market caused by “foreign” – meaning non-EU – subsidies benefitting companies active in the EU.
Publication
The conventional wisdom is that ‘securitisation caused the great financial crisis’ (GFC). A further piece of conventional wisdom is that this was due to the misalignment of incentives between securitisation originators and securitisation investors . This conventional wisdom in turn drove much of the regulation of securitisation we now have.
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