Even as the Brexit process unwinds in an ever more confounding pile of confusion, companies must continue to plan, operate, and report to their shareholders. U.S. securities regulators have already issued calls for reporting companies to provide greater details about the plans of management in the face of the risks and uncertainties surrounding the Brexit process. On March 15, 2019, William Hinman, the Director of the SEC’s Division of Corporate Finance, speaking at a securities regulation conference in London, offered a more detailed overview of the kind of disclosures he believes companies should be providing their shareholders about Brexit. Among other things, Hinman provided a useful checklist of questions companies should be asking themselves and about which companies should also be advising their investors. The text of Hinman’s March 15, 2019 speech can be found here.
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Brexit Uncertainty, Disclosure Concerns, and Potential Liability
If the uncertainty creates risk, then the current state of play on the United Kingdom’s efforts to withdraw from the European Union represents risk in a highly concentrated form. On November 25, 2018, the 27 EU members approved the divorce pact that the U.K. negotiated with its EU counterparts, but the pact must now face a Parliamentary vote, on December 11, 2018. In the meantime, the March 29, 2019 withdrawal date looms. These upcoming events present uncertainties at both the economic and enterprise levels. The uncertainties in turn create challenges for potentially affected companies, including among other things the challenge of communicating about these issues to investors. As discussed below, SEC Chair Jay Clayton recently emphasized that the agency is “sharpening its focus” on Brexit-related disclosures, highlighting the significance of the disclosure-related concerns.
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What Does the Brexit Vote Mean for the Insurance Industry?
The historic June 23, 2016 vote by a majority of voters for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union has dominated the headlines and roiled financial markets around the world – and for good reason. The U.K.’s withdrawal from the E.U. will have an enormous impact on the U.K itself, on the E.U., and on the rest of the world. Many of the consequences of Brexit will only become apparent as the long process that is about to commence unfolds over the course of the next few years. But while all of the consequences of Brexit will only become fully apparent over time, many of the likely effects can be predicted or at least anticipated now.
Among other things, because the financial services sector is among the industrial segments to which E.U. regulations have most extensively been applied, the financial services sector is among the segments that will be most significantly affected. In the following post, I review some of the ways that Brexit will impact the insurance industry, and discuss the implications for the industry, as well.
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