Clifford Chance

The two faces of the FCA's review of UK primary equity markets

23 February 2017

On 14 February 2017, the Financial Conduct Authority (the "FCA") published a consultation paper "Enhancements to the Listing Regime" (CP17/4) (the "Consultation Paper") and a discussion paper "The UK Primary Markets Landscape" (DP17/2) (the "Discussion Paper") as part of its review of the effectiveness of the UK primary markets.

The Consultation Paper mostly proposes a technical simplification and codification of current market practice. However, the Discussion Paper foreshadows the possibility of far-reaching changes to market structures involving, among other things, a potential re-think of standard listings, a new segment for secondary listings by international issuers and the possibility of structural changes to encourage long-term capital.

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