Changes in Hanfa's registers due to Brexit

Published: 29. December 2020.

As of 1 January 2021, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) will be considered as a third country in respect of the EU Member States. This will lead to changes in Hanfa's registers concerning financial services providers from the UK and Gibraltar.

On 1 January 2021, Hanfa will remove from its registers more than 1200 regulated entities having their registered office in the UK and Gibraltar, which have by that moment been authorised to provide services and/or perform activities in the Republic of Croatia on the basis of the EU passport, as well as 57 alternative investment funds which had sent their notification for marketing in Croatia. These include 594 UK companies and 3 Gibraltar companies with notifications for the provision of investment services and performance of investment activities, 59 EU fund management companies, 110 UK (re)insurance companies and branches of EU (re)insurance companies in the UK, 5 Gibraltar (re)insurance companies and branches of EU (re)insurance companies in Gibraltar, 464 insurance distributors from the UK and 1 insurance distributor from Gibraltar.

Financial services providers from other Member States of the European Union (EU) are allowed to provide their services in the territory of the Republic of Croatia based on authorisation obtained from competent authorities from EU Member States (the so-called passporting) directly or through a branch. Croatian service providers may operate under the same arrangements in other EU Member States as well.

Accordingly, Hanfa is making the following available on its website:

  • lists (registers) of service providers from other EU Member States for which it has received a notification of their intention to directly provide services in the Republic of Croatia
  • lists (registers) of service providers from other EU Member States which operate through a branch in the Republic of Croatia.

Since the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) has no longer been an EU Member State as of 1 February 2020, and will become a third country with respect to EU Member States as of 1 January 2021, below is the information regarding the treatment of registers containing service providers from the UK and Gibraltar providing their services directly on the territory of the Republic of Croatia on the basis of passporting. There are no entities from the UK or Gibraltar providing services in the territory of Croatia through a branch, so Hanfa will not need to update such registers.

The Agreement on the withdrawal from the European Union, ratified by the European Parliament on 29 January 2020, defines a transition period from 1 February 2020 to 31 December 2020, during which the UK companies which had sent their notification for the cross-border provision of services in the Republic of Croatia by 31 January 2020, can freely provide services on the basis of the EU passport, and during the transition period the EU law is applicable to such companies (MiFID II/MiFIR, EMIR, CSDR, AIFMD, UCITSD, IDD, Solvency II…).

Below is the list of entities from the UK and Gibraltar which will be removed from Hanfa’s registers on 1 January 2021, and which will no longer be able to provide their services in the territory of the Republic of Croatia on the basis of the EU passport from that date:

  1. List of investment firms from the UK which will be removed from Hanfa’s Register of investment firms from EU Member States
  2. List of investment firms from Gibraltar which will be removed from Hanfa’s Register of investment firms from EU Member States
  3. List of fund management companies from the UK which will be removed from Hanfa’s Register of EU management companies that meet the condition to provide services in the Republic of Croatia
  4. List of (re)insurance companies from the UK which will be removed from Hanfa’s Register on notifications of insurance companies and/or reinsurance companies from EU Member States
  5. List of (re)insurance companies from Gibraltar which will be removed from Hanfa’s Register on notifications of insurance companies and/or reinsurance companies from EU Member States
  6. List of insurance agents and brokers from the UK which will be removed from Hanfa’s Register on notifications of insurance agents and brokers from EU Member States
  7. List of insurance agents and brokers from Gibraltar which will be removed from Hanfa’s Register on notifications of insurance agents and brokers from EU Member States

More information about the impact of Brexit on the entities from the UK providing their services in Croatia and entities from Croatia providing their services in the UK can be found on Hanfa website, in a dedicated section titled Brexit.

Hanfa further points out that on 24 December 2020, the European Commission reached an agreement with the UK on future EU cooperation with the UK. The Trade and Cooperation Agreement covers three areas - free trade agreement, partnership for citizens' security and agreement on governance. More information about the Agreement is available on the European Commission website.