Changes to the UK Listing Regime

Following a two-year period of consultation, the UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) introduced its new two-tier listing regime, which has been in effect since April 6, 2010. The new regime allows all companies, UK or overseas, to choose either a "Premium" or a "Standard" Listing on the FSA's Official List. Other changes had been in force since October 2009 as preliminary steps toward the new regime.

The FSA has introduced amendments to:

• restructure and re-label the regime into two segments, i.e., "Premium" and "Standard" (broadly equivalent to the previous "Primary" and "Secondary" labels) — the former being available only to a commercial company listing equity shares and requiring compliance with more stringent UK "super-equivalent" standards, and the latter requiring compliance only with European Union (EU) minimum standards;