Interim Compliance Officer

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.”

Property Funds – Investment & Development

We’ve worked on a number of property development funds recently.  They have all been structured as unregulated collective investment schemes but have taken a variety of approaches in terms of structure, tax and regulation.

Investor Certificates

If, under the FSA’s rules you qualify as a High Net Worth Individual or a Sophisticated Investor, feel free to download and use one of the certificates (the criteria for eligibility are contained in each certificate):

• Certified High Net Worth Individual – Collective Investment Schemes
• Certified High Net Worth Individual – Financial Promotion
• Self-Certified Sophisticated Investor – Collective Investment Scheme
• Self-Certified Sophisticated Investor – Financial Promotions

Each certificate is valid for 12 months from the date of signature.  We don’t need to see these certificates because we’re not promoting any investments but if the criteria apply and you sign one of these certificates then other firms will be able to promote relevant investments to you.  They will probably ask to see a copy.

Certified High Net Worth & Sophisticated Investors

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 the investment is assesed as ’suitable’
• Individuals assesed as having ‘adequate knowledge & experience’
• Individuals who have invested in ’substantially similar’ funds

An investor may fall into any or all of these categories and may be a ”retail” or “elective professional” investor at the same time – to better understand the various categories of investor and the exemptions that they may be able to fit into, please e-mail or call me so that we can discuss it in more detail. 

(If you are a High Net Worth Individual or a Sophisticated Investor, you can find downloadable copies of the investor certificates here.)

Marketing an Unregulated Collective Investment Scheme

IFAs are not the only route. 
“Unregulated Collective Investment Scheme” (UCIS) is something of a misnomer.  Far from being unregulated, the FSA restrict them them 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.”

Simon Webber

Simon Webber

Simon is an FSA-approved Compliance Officer, Money Laundering Reporting Officer and Director. 

He serves on the Boards of a corporate finance and early-stage investment house, a business start-up incubator, and a Non-Executive Director placement service. 

He also holds two undergraduate degrees with honours and a masters degree.  He is a founder member of a regional committee for the Institute of Directors and is proud to be a Director of a charitable grantmaker giving over £5m per year to community projects. 

If you would like to speak to Simon about any aspect of compliance, please call or e-mail him.

Freeing Up FSA-required Capital Reserves

FSA-authorised firms are required to maintain an amount of their capital in reserve.  The required level is set by the FSA, based on the risk that the regulator attach to the firm’s activity. 

Compliance Awareness & Understanding

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? 

Money Laundering Regulations 2007

Since December 2007, many companies that are not FSA authorised are also required to attend to financial crime prevention in their business.  Because of our familiarity with these procedures as they already apply to FSA-firms, we can advise on how the expanded regulations apply to your business and what steps you need to take.  We can also prepare appropriate procedures for financial crime prevention and tailor these to your business to ensure that they are easily implemented and followed.

FSA Reporting & Relationship Management

FSA Reporting
Whereas much attentention is paid to ensuring that management have ready access to financial snapshots of the business’ performance all too often, compliance information must be gathered each time it is required.