On June 30, HM Treasury published a joint statement with the Swiss Federal Department of Finance on deepening co-operation in the financial services sector (the Statement).

The Statement sets out their common intention to conclude a legally binding international agreement on mutual recognition (the Agreement). The objective of the Agreement is to improve the cross-border market for financial services between the UK and Switzerland, with an intended focus on the provision of services to wholesale and sophisticated clients in the fields of insurance, banking, asset management and capital markets.

Consequently, the Agreement is expected to:

• establish outcomes-based mutual recognition, providing rights for the provision of relevant financial services from one jurisdiction into the other, and reducing regulatory frictions for cross-border activity;
• establish structures and appropriate safeguards to underpin these rights, including provisions for regulatory and supervisory cooperation; and
• create a clear, transparent and managed process in the event that recognition is withdrawn in the future or re-established after a withdrawal.

In connection with the Statement, HM Treasury published a speech by the UK Government on June 30, confirming that that the UK has completed its equivalence assessment of Swiss stock markets and deemed them to be equivalent (the Speech).

The Statement is available here.

The Speech is available here.