HM Treasury has made the Financial Services (Overseas Recognition Regime Designations) Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/1147), approved by both Houses under the affirmative procedure. The instrument was made on 30 October 2025 and enters into force on 28 November 2025 across the United Kingdom.
Acting under sections 4, 84(2) and 86(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, the Regulations establish how the Treasury may designate another country, territory or international organisation as having law and practice equivalent to the UK’s in a relevant area of financial services or markets. Such a decision is defined as an ‘overseas recognition regime designation’.
The regime allows proportionate tailoring. The Treasury may impose conditions or limitations on any designation and may vary or revoke it. The term ‘territory’ expressly includes the European Union and any other international organisation or authority comprising countries or territories, enabling decisions that reference bloc‑level frameworks.
To inform decisions, the Treasury may require the Financial Conduct Authority, the Prudential Regulation Authority or the Bank of England to provide specified information or advice within a reasonable period via written notice. Regulators may also provide material voluntarily in the absence of a notice.
A coordination duty is placed on the Treasury, the FCA, the PRA and the Bank of England. The bodies must coordinate the discharge of their functions relating to designations and the provision of information. They must prepare and maintain a memorandum describing how they will meet these duties. The Treasury must lay a copy before Parliament and publish it.
Confidentiality rules are aligned. Sections 348 to 350 and 352 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 apply to information the Bank of England receives under the new information‑gathering power. The Regulations also clarify permitted disclosures between the Bank and the Treasury for these specific functions.
Two targeted amendments promote consistency. Within the Insurance and Reinsurance Undertakings (Prudential Requirements) Regulations 2023, the definition of ‘overseas jurisdiction’ for the overseas insurance regime is amended to omit ‘or Gibraltar’. This change tightens the drafting without altering firms’ domestic prudential obligations.
In the Short Selling Regulations 2025, ‘overseas jurisdiction’ is replaced by ‘territory outside’, and ‘territory’ is defined to include the European Union and any other international organisation or authority comprising countries or territories. The objective is consistent terminology across overseas recognition regimes.
The Schedule identifies the existing powers to which these designations relate: regulation 11 of the 2023 insurance prudential regulations and regulation 11(1) of the 2025 short selling regulations. The instrument restates, with modifications, provisions previously contained in SI 2019/541, which were revoked by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023.
For firms, this framework does not itself confer market access. It sets the legal machinery for future designations and for structured regulator input. Compliance teams should track publication of the memorandum between the Treasury, FCA, PRA and the Bank of England, and monitor for designation decisions that may carry conditions, be varied over time, or be withdrawn.
The Regulations are signed by Treasury Lords Commissioners Lilian Greenwood and Stephen Morgan and extend to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The coming‑into‑force date of 28 November 2025 provides a short implementation window for institutions to update internal policy notes and horizon‑scanning plans.