Berlin/Milan, August 19, 2026 – The international law firm ADVANT, with teams…
Investment firms and asset management companies domiciled in the United Kingdom will no longer be allowed to operate on the German market on the basis of the European passport after the expiry of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020. The same applies to their branches in Germany. These companies will be treated as third-country enterprises after the end of the transitional period. This was announced by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) in two information letters on its website on 9 December 2020. Without a licence, these enterprises will in any case be prohibited from doing business with new customers in the future, whereby, according to BaFin, there may also be effects on existing customer relationships.
In order to continue operating on the German market, investment firms and asset management companies domiciled in the United Kingdom will henceforth require a licence from BaFin or another supervisory authority of a member state of the European Economic Area (EEA). However, a prerequisite for the granting of such a licence is that the enterprise has its registered office in a member state of the EEA.
