Working In A Regulated Environment February 1, 2009
Posted by Simon Webber in compliance training, strategic compliance, styperson pope, Uncategorized.Tags: authorised, compliance advice, compliance advisor, compliance awareness, compliance consultancy, compliance consultant, compliance director, compliance interim, compliance manager, compliance officer, compliance report, compliance review, conduct of business rules, fsa authorisation, fsa authorised, fsa authorised firm, fsa compliance, fsa regulated, fsa regulation, fsma, head of compliance, interim compliance, interim compliance officer, regulated activity, regulated environment, regulatory advice, simon webber, stypersonpope, unauthorised, unauthorised firms, Uncategorized
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“The rain, it raineth on the just and also on the unjust fella;
but chiefly on the just, because the unjust steals the just’s umbrella.”
Sam Ervin – US Senator 1954 – 1974
It would undoubtedly be easier to make money if we chose not to follow the increasing number of regulations to which we are subject. After all, it’s probably more profitable to rob a bank than to run one.
However, as we offer compliance advice (as opposed to non-compliance advice) we feel the real trick is knowing how to make the most of what can be acheived within the regulations.
It’s vital not to see the compliance function as a brake on enterprise; it must be a partner in the firm’s strategic development; if it’s not, then you need to review your compliance function urgently.
If you would like to discuss any aspects of strategic compliance advice, please call or e-mail us.
Anti-Money Laundering January 31, 2009
Posted by Simon Webber in anti-money laundering, compliance training, management systems and controls, strategic compliance, styperson pope, Uncategorized.Tags: aml, authorised, british bankers association, cf11, compliance advice, compliance advisor, compliance awareness, compliance consultancy, compliance consultant, compliance director, compliance interim, compliance manager, compliance officer, compliance report, compliance review, financial crime, financial crime prevention, financial services authority, fsa authorisation, fsa authorised, fsa authorised firm, fsa compliance, fsa reporting, fsma, head of compliance, hmrc, interim compliance, interim compliance officer, jmslg, joint money laundering steering group, know your customer, kyc, money laundering, money laundering reporting, money laundering reporting officer, money laundering rules, office of fair trading, oft, regulated activity, regulated environment, regulatory advice, simon webber, soca, stypersonpope, unauthorised, unauthorised firms, Uncategorized
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All FSA-authorised firms are required to ensure that their businesses are not used to facilitate financial crime. Since December 2007, many unregulated companies have joined them, becoming responsible to other regulators including HMRC and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
The Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG), part of the British Bankers’ Association (BBA), has devised rules for all of these businesses to follow in their anti-money laundering efforts. Because of our familiarity with these rules, we can prepare appropriate procedures based on your business’ exposure to the risk of financial crime. We can tailor these to fit your existing business processes and ensure that they are easily understood, implemented and overseen.
We are able to offer the services of an FSA and HMRC-approved Money Laundering Reporting Officer who can oversee the processes we implement and report to your Board, SOCA or you relevant authority as required.
If you would like to discuss any aspects of money laundering reporting, please call or e-mail Simon Webber, our Managing Director.
Types of Investor under FSA rules January 31, 2009
Posted by Simon Webber in strategic compliance, styperson pope, Uncategorized.Tags: certificate, certified, elective professional client, exemption, fsa investor categories, high net worth, high net worth individual, high net worth investor, hnwi, linkedin, retail client, self-certified, simon webber, sophisticated investor, specified investments, stypersonpope, unauthorised, unauthorised firms, Uncategorized
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If you are a potential investor, we’d be very grateful if you could take 30 seconds to complete the anonymous poll at the bottom of the page to let us know which certificates (if any) you currently hold.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) categorises individual investors in a number of ways and allows certain firms to promote their services, products, investment schemes and funds to different groups. These categories include:
- Certified High Net Worth Investors
- Certified Sophisticated Investors
- Self-Certified Sophisticated Investors
- Qualified Investors
- Individuals for whom a collective investment scheme has been assesed as ‘suitable’
- Individuals assesed as having ‘adequate knowledge & experience’ of the risks of investing in a collective investment scheme
- Individuals who have invested in ‘substantially similar’ schemes
An investor may fall into any or all of these categories and may, at the same time, be either a ”retail” or “elective professional” client. An investor may also fall into one category for a certain instrument (eg shares in unlisted companies) but not for others (eg derivatives). Also, depending on the structure of the investment (eg an EIS or a Collective Investment Scheme) certain categories may or may not be used.
It’s a complicated overlap of different restrictions, trying to acheive different objectives – if you’re promoting an investment or a regulated service and you need to understand it, please do call or e-mail Simon Webber to talk it through.
Promoting an unregulated collective investment scheme January 31, 2009
Posted by Simon Webber in compliance training, strategic compliance, styperson pope, Uncategorized, unregulated collective investment scheme.Tags: asset manager, authorised, certificate, certified, ciso, collective investment scheme, collective investment scheme order, collective investment scheme rules, compliance advice, compliance advisor, compliance awareness, compliance consultancy, compliance consultant, compliance director, compliance interim, compliance manager, compliance officer, compliance report, compliance review, eput, exemption, financial advisor, fsa authorised, fsa authorised firm, fsa compliance, fsa regulated, fsa regulation, high net worth, high net worth individual, high net worth investor, hnwi, ifa, independent financial advisor, information memorandum, promoting, promoting collective investment schemes, promoting unregulated collective investment schemes, promotion, property development fund, property fund, property investment, property investment fund, qualified investor, scheme operator, self-certified, simon webber, sophisticated investor, sophisticated investor certificate, specified investments, stypersonpope, ucis, Uncategorized, unregulated collective investment, unregulated investment
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IFAs are not the only route.
“Unregulated Collective Investment Scheme” (UCIS) is something of a misnomer. Far from being unregulated, the FSA restrict these schemes very tightly indeed – for funds structured as a UCIS, there is a simple edict:
“Such schemes cannot be marketed to the general public and are otherwise restricted in their promotion.“
As a result, the promotion of unregulated collective investment schemes, must be carried out very carefully and only to selected groups of investors. Often the only route considered is through IFAs but in fact any authorised firm, and even unauthorised firms, can promote a UCIS as long as the approach is planned carefully and carried out correctly.
Summary Documents
For the sake of making the fund more attractive to investors, the detail of the information memorandum (IM) needs to be distilled, summarised and presented in a more user-friendly, marketing-led form. Although secondary to the IM, this document must still meet the stringent demands of the FSA. We produce summary documents, ensuring compliance, and with marketing expertise on hand, as well as design and print facilities, we can offer a full service if required.
Alternative Routes to Market
For some funds, IFAs may not be the best (or at least the only) route to market and with our assistance, General Partners, Managers, Advisers, and Promoters of such schemes can negotiate a marketing plan with their Operators, draft documents and produce a set of procedures which allows them to engage with individual investors under specific exemptions to the rules.
Interim Compliance Officer January 30, 2009
Posted by Simon Webber in compliance training, management systems and controls, strategic compliance, styperson pope, Uncategorized.Tags: authorised, cf10, cf11, compliance advice, compliance advisor, compliance awareness, compliance consultancy, compliance consultant, compliance director, compliance interim, compliance manager, compliance officer, compliance report, compliance review, fsa authorisation, fsa authorised, fsa compliance, fsa regulated, fsa regulation, fsa relationship manager, fsa reporting, head of compliance, icaap, interim compliance, interim compliance officer, regulated activity, simon webber, stypersonpope, sysc, systems and controls, Uncategorized
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Losing a colleague at short notice is always difficult but if your firm is FSA authorised, and the person you lose is a Compliance Officer, it’s essential to find an Interim Compliance Officer as quickly as possible. Quite apart from the day-to-day compliance issues, and the risk of running up considerable costs for external advice, the FSA demands that all firms have a Compliance Officer:
A firm which carries on designated investment business… must allocate to a director or senior manager the function of having responsibility for oversight of the firm’s compliance.
An approved person performing a significant influence function must exercise due skill, care and diligence in managing the business of the firm for which he is responsible in his controlled function.
We can provide an Interim Compliance Officer with the necessary skills to fulfil the FSA’s requirements but, much more importantly, with the experience of working at Board level and capable of quickly understanding your business while playing a full role in the strategic direction of compliance matters. We can also take responsibility for training up your permanent replacement and will gladly stay on as a mentor or just to give occasional advice on more specialised subjects.
Simon Webber, who will act as Interim Compliance Officer, serves permanently on a number of Boards either as Head of Compliance, Director or Non-Executive Director. If you would like to speak to Simon about any aspect of compliance, please call or e-mail him.
Compliance Awareness & Understanding January 30, 2009
Posted by Simon Webber in compliance training, strategic compliance, styperson pope, training and competence, Uncategorized.Tags: cf10, cf11, compliance advice, compliance advisor, compliance awareness, compliance consultancy, compliance consultant, compliance director, compliance interim, compliance manager, compliance officer, compliance report, compliance review, fsa authorisation, fsa authorised, fsa authorised firm, fsa compliance, fsa investor categories, fsa regulated, fsa regulation, fsa relationship manager, fsa reporting, fsma, head of compliance, interim compliance, interim compliance officer, regulated activity, simon webber, stypersonpope, t&c, Uncategorized
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When running an authorised business, or even when operating within exemptions to authorisation, it is vital to have an understanding of the compliance environment. How else can you effectively plan the strategy of the firm?
It is necessary for the management of firms to have a working knowledge of compliance without being paralysed by the details. We base our awareness advice on three levels of knowledge:
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What you need to know (day-to-day)
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What you need to look out for (exceptional situations)
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Who to turn to for more detailed advice
Some staff can receive formal compliance training as a group. This may create high awareness but relatively low understanding. Board members, and anyone else involved in the strategic development of the firm, will need to have a more thorough understanding, but only of those areas of regulation which directly affect their firm. We deliver awareness advice to Directors on a one-to-one basis giving ample opportunity for the free discussion of issues which may affect the firm. We then remain available to Board members and divisonal heads to give ad hoc advice as it’s required.
If you would like to discuss any aspects of strategic compliance advice, please do call or e-mail Simon Webber, our Managing Director.
Ad Hoc Advice January 30, 2009
Posted by Simon Webber in anti-money laundering, collective investment schemes, compliance training, management systems and controls, strategic compliance, styperson pope, training and competence, Uncategorized, unregulated collective investment scheme.Tags: aml, cf10, cf11, ciso, cobs, coll, collective investment scheme, collective investment scheme order, collective investment scheme rules, compliance advice, compliance advisor, compliance awareness, compliance consultancy, compliance consultant, compliance director, compliance interim, compliance manager, compliance officer, compliance report, compliance review, conduct of business rules, corporate finance, corporate finance house, exemption, financial crime, financial crime prevention, financial services authority, fsa authorisation, fsa authorised, fsa authorised firm, fsa capital requirement, fsa compliance, fsa regulated, fsa regulation, fsa reporting, fund documents, fund launch, fund manager, head of compliance, icaap, information memorandum, kyc, marketing, marketing unregulated collective investment schemes, mlr 2003, mlr 2007, money laundering, money laundering reporting, money laundering reporting officer, money laundering rules, private equity, promoting unregulated collective investment schemes, promotion, property development fund, property fund, property investment, property investment fund, regulated activity, regulated environment, regulatory advice, simon webber, stypersonpope, sysc, systems and controls, t&c, tcf, treating customers fairly, ucis, unauthorised, unauthorised firms, Uncategorized, unregulated collective investment, unregulated investment
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As well as ongoing and strategic advice, most firms will require occasional, more intensive advice either to acheive a specific goal or to overcome a particular issue.
Examples of our recent acheivements include:
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Designing strategic alterations to a client’s permissions and corporate structure to reduce FSA-required capital reserves by over 90%;
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Overseeing an application to the FSA from a new corporate finance firm;
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Creating and writing processes for two corporate finance firms;
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Updating documents and processes after FSA rule changes (CRD and MiFID);
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Creating and writing processes for a new division operating in a new market;
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Designing a plan for an innovative private equity investment scheme to market directly to individuals rather than IFAs;
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Creating compliant documents for two property investment funds; and
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Designing business models to avoid unecessary (and costly) regulation for unauthorised firms.
If you would like to discuss any projects or issues that require strategic compliance advice, please do call or e-mail Simon Webber, our Managing Director.
Compliance Advice for Boards January 30, 2009
Posted by Simon Webber in collective investment schemes, compliance training, management systems and controls, strategic compliance, styperson pope, training and competence, Uncategorized.Tags: authorised, cf10, cf11, cobs, coll, collective investment scheme, collective investment scheme order, collective investment scheme rules, compliance advice, compliance advisor, compliance awareness, compliance consultancy, compliance consultant, compliance director, compliance interim, compliance manager, compliance officer, compliance report, compliance review, compliance strategy, conduct of business rules, financial services authority, fsa authorisation, fsa authorised, fsa authorised firm, fsa capital requirement, fsa compliance, fsa regulated, fsa regulation, fsa reporting, fsma, head of compliance, icaap, interim compliance, interim compliance officer, know your customer, kyc, mlr 2003, mlr 2007, regulated activity, regulated environment, regulatory advice, simon webber, stypersonpope, sysc, systems and controls, t&c, tcf, treating customers fairly, Uncategorized
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It is vital to the devlelopment of any regulated business that the Board is well advised on compliance and that the advice is strategic, not reactive. It is unlikely that smaller Corporate Finance, Private Equity and Collective Investment firms will need to have a full time team member to advise on or oversee compliance and that is why they should look to an advisor who can be on hand when (and only when) required.
Examples of recent strategic advice to Boards includes:
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Establishing a division, in a new business area, under new FSA rules
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Effecting variations of permissions to cut costs and increase scope
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Performing strategic assesments of risk (including ICAAP)
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Creating business procedures for new and existing businesses
If you would like to discuss any aspects of strategic compliance advice, please do call or e-mail us.
