In 2017, the Council of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) published their guidance for the FTR, with an implementation date of 16 July 2018, UK Finance engaged with its members on the issue of interpretation and compliance.

It was clear that there were a number of areas where firms felt that there could be more clarity for the market. Following the United Kingdom’s (UK) decision to leave the European Union, the FTRs were legislatively onshored through a 2019 statutory instrument (SI), to The Money Laundering and Transfer of Funds (Information) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, which came into force on 10th January 2020.

In 2018 UK Finance worked with its members to produce an additional voluntary guidance document. This ‘How To’ interpretative guidance is intended to provide some operational clarity and encourage market harmonisation on points material to, for example, straight-through processing. The guidelines have been updated twice since 2018. In 2022, amendments focused on issues raised by members during the FTR onshoring process. These 2023 amendments focus on new practice issues and regulatory developments raised by members following changes in Industry best practice and UK Finance will be keeping the guidance under review.

These guidelines have been prepared for general guidance only, and should not be construed as legal guidance.