The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published a policy statement (PS25/9: New rules for the public offers and admissions to trading regime) under which it sets out the rules for the new regime that will apply in respect of prospectuses. This follows the consultation process the FCA undertook via the previous publication of consultation papers CP 25/2 and CP 24/12. The Public Offers and Admissions to Trading Regulations 2024 (POATRs) will replace the UK Prospectus Regulation (UKPR). The POATRs are generally in line with the proposals consulted on, with some modifications to reflect feedback from market participants. The new rules will come into effect on 19 January 2026.

The FCA has published a consultation paper (CP23/31) setting out detailed proposals for the major listing rules reforms that it proposed in May this year. It describes the reforms as “the most far-reaching reforms of the UK’s listing regime in three decades” and the paper attaches in a lengthy appendix the draft text of many of the proposed new listing rules (the first of two tranches).

The FCA has published a consultation paper (CP23/10) proposing major changes to the listing rules. The deadline for responses is Wednesday, 28 June 2023 and the FCA expects to publish a further consultation “in the autumn” which will include the proposed revised listing rules in full (the current consultation discusses the changes proposed but not specific drafting). The proposals relate to the rules as they apply to listings of equity shares in commercial companies, with no material changes currently proposed to the rules as they apply to non-equity securities nor the majority of other standard listed instruments (e.g., depositary receipts).

Following the fifth trilogue on 28 February 2023, the European Council and European Parliament each confirmed that a provisional agreement on the new standard to fight greenwashing in the bonds market, the “European Green Bonds Standard”, has now been reached.
Despite initially divergent views on several contentious points, with the Parliament pushing for substantive amendments to the Council’s proposal of 13 April 2022 intended further to heighten regulation, supervision, transparency and accountability across the entire green bond market, this provisional agreement marks a significant step towards creating the first ‘best in class’ standard for issuing green bonds.