On 12 February 2019, the amendments to the Exemption Regulation AFS (Vrijstellingsregeling Wft, the Exemption Regulation) in relation to the (temporary) exemptions for investment firms based in the UK was published in Dutch Government Gazette (Staatsblad). The date of entry into force of this exemption can now be set by means of a ministerial decree (where necessary retroactively). This means that any registration of UK investment firms is currently still conditional to such ministerial decree in case of a no-deal Brexit. If there will be a deal on Brexit and a transitional regime for investment firms, registration under this exemption will not take place. The exemption for UK investments firms will in any event be for a maximum of two years and more details on the exemption can be found in our previous blog post.

Despite the aforementioned conditionality, UK investment firms are nevertheless urged to register themselves with the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets Authority (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) as soon as possible. The notification form that needs to be used for this purpose is now available on the AFM’s website.

View the Exemption Regulation (Dutch only), 12 February 2019.

View the AFM notification form, 12 February 2019.