The onshored Securitisation Regulation transfers the responsibility for maintaining a list of STS securitisations from European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to the FCA. From the end of the transition period, the FCA will maintain a list of securitisations duly notified to it as meeting UK STS criteria. To qualify as UK STS, the originators and sponsor of a securitisation (or in the case of ABCP programmes and transactions, the sponsor) must be established in the UK and must notify the FCA, using the onshored UK STS notification templates, for:
- New securitisations which meet the UK STS criteria under the onshored regulation.
- UK securitisations previously notified to ESMA as EU STS that meet the UK STS criteria and want to be considered as such.
On 23 November 2020, the FCA updated its web page on reporting simple, transparent and standardised (STS) securitisations by publishing the onshored UK STS notification templates and related instructions for:
- Public securitisations.
- Private full securitisations.
- Private anonymised securitisations.
The FCA has also published an STS notifications user guide which covers:
- Logging into Connect.
- The Principal User role.
- Submitting STS notifications.
- Unregulated firm enrolment.
The FCA explains that UK securitisations previously notified to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) that meet the UK STS criteria and want to be considered as such must be notified to the FCA before 11pm on 31 December 2020, when the UK STS framework comes into effect. Securitisations that have been duly notified to the FCA will be published on the STS list on the FCA’s website on 31 December 2020. To maintain an accessible pool of STS product for UK institutional investors, EU securitisations notified to ESMA as meeting EU STS criteria before and up to 2 years after the end of the transition period, and which remain on ESMA’s list, will also qualify as UK STS for the life of the transaction.
