Background
On 31 January 2020, the United Kingdom
("UK") officially exited the European
Union ("EU"), an event more commonly
referred to as "Brexit".
From 1 February 2020 to 31 December 2020 (the
"Implementation Period") the UK remained
part of EU customs union and single market, meaning essentially EU
law continued to have the same effect in the UK as it did prior to
Brexit. This meant that UK firms were still able to access the EU
under relevant financial services passports (including under the
Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive
("AIFMD")).
EU-UK Trade Deal
On 24th December 2020, the UK and EU (together,
the "Parties") announced a trade
agreement that has since been approved by EU Member States and the
UK Parliament (the EU Parliament will retrospectively approve it in
January this year). The text of the treaty free trade agreement
(the "FTA") can be found here.
