Find out what fees an EEA firm has to pay if it wants to set up a branch or offer cross-border services in the UK (passporting).
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If you are a firm authorised in a member state of the EEA, you can carry on certain activities in any other EEA member state. For example, your firm might:
- offer cross-border services (such as contracts of insurance)
- operate a branch in the UK
This is called ‘passporting’.
Home state regulators should send an inward passporting notice of intention for firms wishing to passport into the UK to the lead UK regulator
The regulated activities will be listed in your firm’s EEA passport.
If your firm decides to operate a branch in the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority will calculate your fees based on the regulated activities you carry out in the UK through your EEA passport.
You must tell us if there are any of these regulated activities that you will not be carrying out in this country so we can invoice you correctly.
You can do this when you send us your tariff data form.
EEA firms offering cross border services do not pay annual fees, but only levies for the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) if they are an insurer.
Guidance for firms offering cross-border services (FSCS class SB01)
You will need to pay a levy to the FSCS if you offer non-life insurance contracts where the risk is located in the UK (protected contracts of insurance).
Examples of these contracts include:
- a building or contents policy, where the building is in the UK
- a vehicle policy, where the vehicle is registered in the UK
- a travel or holiday policy lasting four months or less, where the policyholder took out the contract in the UK
- other types of contract where the individual policyholder's main residence was in the UK when the contract began; and
- other type of contract where the policyholder is not an individual, where the establishment to which the risk relates to was situated in the UK when the contract began
Read a definition of protected contracts of insurance.
To calculate the levy, we need your firm’s premium income for the protected contracts (relevant net premium income) during your latest financial year.
Do not include premiums for reinsurance contracts, or for contracts covering these classes of business:
- aircraft
- ships
- goods in transit
- aircraft liability
- liability of ships
- credit
Guidance for firms operating branches in the UK (FSCS class SB01)
The guidance for firms operating branches in the UK is the same as for firms offering cross-border services with one exception: the location.
For branches of EEA firms, protected contracts of insurance are non-life insurance contracts where the risk is located in the EEA (including the UK), the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.
So, for example:
- for a building or contents policy, where the building is
- for a vehicle policy, where the vehicle is registered
- for a travel or holiday policy lasting four months or less, where the policyholder took out the contract
- for other types of contract, where the individual policyholder habitually lived when the contract began; and
- for other types of contract where the policyholder is not an individual, where the establishment to which the risk relates to was situated when the contract began.
How to report your activities to us for fees purposes
In January each year we will email you a paper form to complete if you are registered for online invoicing. Otherwise we will send this to you in the post.
We need to receive your completed form, including details of any of the passported activities you will not be carrying out in the UK, by the end of February. We prefer firms to send this by email to [email protected]. Alternatively post to:
Finance – Revenue department, Fee tariff data collection, Financial Conduct Authority, 12 Endeavour Square, London, E20 1JN
What happens next
Once we receive your fee tariff data, we will use it to work out your fees for the next financial year.
We don’t send acknowledgements when we receive your data. However, we will contact you if we have not received your data by the due date. Keep a copy of your submission as a record.
If you don’t send us your data by the due date, we will:
- charge you a fee of £250, and
- send you an estimated invoice until we receive your data
Exemptions
If you do not conduct any business that could lead to a protected claim from eligible claimants, then you can apply for an exemption from certain FSCS levies.
Eligible claimants are defined in Chapter 4 of the Compensation module in Handbook. For non-life insurance policies, broadly, individuals and small businesses are eligible. For certain compulsory insurances (eg third-party motor insurance or employers' liability insurance), all policyholders are eligible claimants.
If you think your firm is exempt, email us at [email protected] . You do not need to include your firm’s relevant net premium income.