Nordic Highlights Q4 | 2020 - Financial Regulation in the Nordic Countries

We have published our Nordic Highlights Q4/2020 issue. Topic in this issue is financial services regulation.

2020 was an interesting year for our financial regulatory practice group. In addition to COVID-19, the dominating feature of 2020 for us was Brexit. We advised several UK-based clients in their Brexit planning in Finland and Sweden. In 2018 in Finland, we assisted clients in successfully lobbying for a third country cross-border licencing regime for investment services, and subsequently the regime was introduced into legislation in early 2019. Since then, we have advised a number of leading UK financial institutions on their licensing process. By the end of 2020, some 140 applications had been filed with the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (“Finnish FSA”). The cross-border licence does not cover banking or fund management services. However, it is still a valuable and practical option for UK firms wishing to continue to do business with Finnish clients. Sweden has taken a different approach and implemented only limited temporary rules for investment firms to continue serving certain existing Swedish per se professional clients on a cross-border basis and trading for their own account throughout 2021.