White & Case has supported UK Finance and the Association for Financial Markets in Europe ("AFME") on their joint response to the Financial Conduct Authority's ("FCA") consultation on the private intermittent securities and capital exchange system ("PISCES") – London's proposed new private share trading platform.
The FCA's proposals follow HM Treasury's consultation in 2024 and provide a detailed blueprint for the disclosure, operational and regulatory regimes that will apply to PISCES.
FCA PISCES consultation
The consultation sets out the FCA's draft sourcebook rules for PISCES and incorporates proposals for key areas including the scope of disclosures, trading event parameters, operator oversight and requirements for trading intermediaries. The consultation follows the publication by HM Treasury of the draft PISCES statutory instrument and government response in November 2024.
White & Case provided legal support to the joint consultation response by the members of: (i) UK Finance, the collective voice for the banking and finance industry; and (ii) AFME, the voice of Europe's wholesale financial markets. For further details, please see the joint response here.
Next steps
The FCA expects to publish final rules for PISCES after HM Treasury has laid its final statutory instrument before Parliament (currently expected in May 2025), with the aim of launching PISCES in the "sandbox" during 2025. The FCA will publish further information in early 2025 for firms interested in applying to be a PISCES operator.
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