Clifford Chance

The UK's financial promotions regime: bringing cryptoassets into the fold

28 July 2023

In June 2023, the UK government published the final version of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) (Amendment) Order 2023, which will bring qualifying cryptoassets within the scope of the existing financial promotion regime. The next day, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a policy statement setting out the conduct rules that the FCA intends to apply to in-scope cryptoasset financial promotions.

The new regime will apply from 8 October 2023 to all firms that market cryptoassets to UK consumers, regardless of whether the firm is based overseas or what technology is used to make the promotion. For direct offer financial promotions (DOFPs) which specify a means of response to the promotion, additional requirements will apply, including the introduction of a 24-hour cooling-off period for first-time investors with a firm, as well as personalised risk warnings, client categorisation requirements and appropriateness assessments.

In this briefing, we explain these developments and the impact for UK and international cryptoasset firms. It specifically addresses compliance with the DOFP requirements, incorporating a compliance flow chart to help firms consider whether they will fall within the new UK regime and, if so, where the DOFP frictions can be included in the customer journey.

A version of this article was originally published on Thomson Reuters’ Practical Law.

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