The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has published a speech given by its CEO, Sam Woods. The speech is entitled Good cop / bad cop, describing the two different roles the PRA often finds itself playing.
One Brexit Mr Woods reiterates the message that firms should be working on their contingency plans. He encourages incoming EU27 firms to opt into the temporary permissions regime whilst they continue to seek authorisation to continue business in the UK. Mr Woods says this acts to provide certainty until March 2022 and is a “straight-forward, common sense way of lowering the risk of disruption to the City of London.” Mr Woods also urges EU27 regulators to reciprocate the steps that the UK regulators have taken to make sure those insurance and derivative contracts written before Brexit can still be appropriately cleared and services after that. In addition, as part of wider contingency planning, Mr Woods makes it clear that “we all need to be ready for a range of outcomes” and so supervisors have been working with firms to ensure that they have in place sufficient liquidity in the event “things go badly”.