Why Fineco Bank closed its UK operations？

Fineco Bank to close its UK operations ahead of December regulatory deadline。Italy-based Fineco is currently operating under an interim regulatory framework, which it bought after Brexit, allowing eligible European companies to continue to operate in the UK, when it was expected that an agreement between the UK and the EU would be reached before the grace period of the interim framework expired.。

However, this is not the case, and negotiations between the two sides on a financial services agreement appear to have made little progress on key issues such as regulatory equivalence.。

Fineco Bank said in a statement: "The decision to exit the UK is influenced by significant changes in the post-Brexit regulatory environment and, in the new context, it is no longer possible to use Fineco Italy's infrastructure to maintain a capital-light business model."。

Before Brexit, Fineco was allowed to operate in the UK under a regulatory passport, allowing it to be regulated and registered in Italy and subject to the supervision of the Central Bank of Italy, with only limited supervision by the UK FCA.。

Do Fineco's UK customers have to close accounts？

In the future, Fineco will no longer be able to offer banking or brokerage services to clients living in the UK.。

Fineco has written to customers explaining its plans and said it would phase out its operations in the UK。The company said business is proceeding as usual and will write to customers again in the coming months about the account closure process.。

The broker has provided the client with a Q & A with details on how to start transferring assets in the ISA account, and the Q & A also provides the client with a link to the account closure form as well as two dedicated telephone support lines and an email address.。

This is a disappointing post-Brexit state of affairs and a direct result of the intransigence of officials and regulators across the Taiwan Strait.。They appear more interested in grabbing key business areas than in negotiating mutually beneficial agreements between the UK and the EU for the provision of cross-border financial services.。