How to report UK nationals if there is a no-deal Brexit

We were hoping for a different outcome but unfortunately for firms reporting to EU National Competent Authorities (NCAs), the approach to reporting UK nationals will change if there is a no-deal Brexit.

Happily there is no change for firms reporting to the FCA. 

Wouter van Bronswijk who leads reporting at the AFM, the Dutch regulator, confirmed at a recent Infoline Trade and Transaction Reporting Conference that based on the regulations, the UK would become a third country. This means that firms reporting to EU NCAs will have to change the way in which:

1. They prioritise the nationality to use for individuals who have more than one nationality of which the UK is one;
2. They change the preferred identifier to use for UK nationals.

Determining the nationality to report

Where an individual has multiple nationalities there is a waterfall approach to determine what nationality to include in the transaction reports. This will apply to traders and clients that are natural persons. 

The steps are:

• Use the first EEA country based on the country code when sorted alphabetically
• If there are no EEA nationalities then it is the first non-EEA nationality based on a sorted country code
• If the UK is the nationality, then the passport number is the preferred identifier and if that does not exist the CONCAT should be used.

All those UK National Insurance numbers that firms had been diligently collecting cannot be reported to EEA NCAs post-Brexit. 

• If you’d like guidance or advice on preparing for Brexit from one of our regulatory specialists, please contact us.
• Read more: FCA: The five key reporting challenges for firms preparing for Brexit.