Making sense of FCA Compliance

Breakfast Webinar 15th May 2020

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Wed, 13 May 2020 11:41:00 +0000

Navigating FCA compliance during COVID-19

PLUS complimentary self assessment guide to all participants.

Make sure you know what you didn't know; gaining confidence to interact and challenge topics in this sector.

Our webinar will cover:

Discussion around the Certification Regime (to be implemented in December 2020) and review of temporary rule changes affecting the SM&CR regime.
Regulatory Changes – overview of key upcoming rule changes
Review of regulatory expectation under “Operational Resilience”
Review of Information Security and ICO compliance during COVID-19
Temporary rule changes to CASS (Client Assets)

This interactive breakfast webinar focuses on the FCA rules and regulatory expectations of a solo-regulated firm in the UK.

We will focus on the updates to rules and guidance recently published by the FCA for the general insurance sector.

We will walk you through a step by step guide of what you need to know, what you need to do and when. All participants will receive a complimentary self assessment guide.

In the context of the pandemic, the webinar will explore how brokers could achieve a competitive edge, through automation and utilisation of MI; preparing for the life after the pandemic.

This webinar is relevant to general insurance brokers/intermediaries, their insurers, and any other market participants. Joining instructions will be sent out shortly before the Zoom webinar begins and all participants will receive a copy of the presentation after the talk.

Boston Tullis have teamed up with Roland Romata of RR Compliance Associates (RRCA) to deliver this engaging, need-to-know webinar. RRCA is a specialist compliance consultancy focusing on customer experience transformation projects, product development and development of FCA compliant governance and compliance framework; through the harnessing of information technology. RRCA's mission is to help the insurance industry improve the way they interact with customers across channels and improve their product/service offering in line with FCA expectations.

Criminal Finances Act 2017

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Fri, 29 Mar 2019 10:20:00 +0000

New Corporate offences of failure to prevent the criminal facilitation of tax evasion was introduced by the Criminal Finances Act 2017.

This Act brings the risk of criminal liability to Firms of Financial Advisers not only as a result of their staff' actions, but also the actions of others with whom they are associated.

The Act created two criminal offences for a relevant body (ie Financial Adviser / Accountant / Solicitor etc) that fails to prevent the criminal facilitation of tax evasion by associated persons (ie clients). The two offences are :

UK tax evasion

and

Evasion of foreign tax.

The Act focuses on who is held to account for acts that are contrary to current criminal law. By focusing on on the failure to prevent the crimes of those who act for or on behalf of the business, rather than trying to attribute criminal acts to the Firm.

Firms need to understand this risk and undertake a review of their existing systems and controls. A timely risk assessment may identify areas requiring refinement - the policies and procedures in place may already minimize the risk of Staff facilitation fraud on behalf of a Client.

HMRC have published updated guidance - a copy may be found at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/672231/Tackling-tax-evasion-corporate-offences.pdf

Gibralter Based firms

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 10:17:00 +0000

Firms that operate out of Gibraltar and passport their Financial Services into the UK won’t need to use the Temporary Permissions regime post BREXIT. HM Govt and the Government of Gibraltar will develop a long term strategy to replace the current regime.

This means that Firms will be able to continue to operate as they do now post Brexit until 2020 – by which time the new arrangements will be in place.

Compliant Solutions Limited - experts in helping Financial Services Businesses deal with the business challenges of Financial Conduct Authority Compliance - for help contact ian@compliantsolutions.co.uk

or visit www.compliancetips.co.uk

Claims Management Companies - part three

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 11:52:00 +0000

•Threshold Conditions - Firms required to meet minimum

standards.

•1 Jan – 31 Mar 2019 – apply for temporary permission

•Application Period 1 – All Fin Ser CMC + Scotland only Firms (1

April – end May 2019)

•Application Period 2 – All other CMC – Personal injury / housing

disrepair (1 June – end July 2019)

•Brady review – preventing Phoenixing by defunct CMC

•6 / 12 Month timescale for approvals - complete / incomplete

applications.

The Consultation Paper published by the FCA is inviting comments by 22nd October 2018.

CMC that are currently Authorised by the Claims Management Regulator will need to reapply for authorisation.

Solicitors that are currently authorised to carry out legal activities by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority will not need to apply and will continue to be regulated by the SRA.

Compliant Solutions Limited - experts in helping Financial Services Businesses deal with the business challenges of Financial Conduct Authority Compliance - for help contact ian@compliantsolutions.co.uk

or visit www.compliancetips.co.uk

Claims Management Firms - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 17:38:00 +0000

Firms will also need to consider :

Financial Crime and Money Laundering Controls

Whistle blowing

Customers Best Interest Rule

Vulnerable Customers Policies

14 days cancellation rights (cooling off)

Reporting lead generators that not regulated

Annual return about important data CMC001

Change of Control : different approach – tell within 14 days (not s178)

Capital Adequacy : Lead Gen are solvent

Capital Adequacy : Class 1 CMC (turnover > £1M) £10,000, Class 2 £5,000 or fixed overheads requirement (which ever is the greater)

Plus extra £20,000 if holding Client Money

or visit www.compliancetips.co.uk

Claims Management Companies - part one

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 07:47:00 +0000

Key points to consider :

•The Financial Guidance and Claims Act 2018

•CP 18/15 – 264 pages

•1 April 2019 – FCA takes over (subject to Parliamentary approval)

•New Rules to apply – pre sale; regular updates; clarity on fees; marketing;

disclosure of Ombudsman (free) services

•All calls will need to be recorded – 12 month retention

•Capital resourses requirements

•Client Money controls – appoint a Person Accountable for Client Money

•Lead generation and Data Protection issues

•Complaints handling and Firms will be subject to FOS

Compliant Solutions Limited

- experts in helping Financial Services Businesses deal with the business challenges of Financial Conduct Authority Compliance - for help contact ian@compliantsolutions.co.uk

Or visit www.compliancetips.co.uk

Anti-Money Laundering Supervison

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 16:14:00 +0000

HM Treasury has published their Consultation outcome regarding Money Laundering Supervision.

The Office for Professional Body AML Supervision (OPBAS) Regulations will come into effect on 18 January 2018. OPBAS will oversee the 22 Accountancy and Legal Professional Body AML supervisors in the UK and seek to achieve consistency.

This new body will be "hosted" by the Financial Conduct Authority - and will act as a means for HM Government to implement reforms to the anti money laundering and counter terrorist financing supervisory regime.

More details may be found at

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/anti-money-laundering-supervisory-review/anti-money-laundering-supervisory-review-consultation

This is a further example of how HM Government are seeking ways to combat Financial Crime - and comes after the publication of SI 2017 / 692 last year which set out the requirements placed upon Businesses to combat Money Laundering in the UK.

Devil in the detail - Cloud Outsourcing

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 17:39:00 +0000

The European Banking Authority have published their final report on recommendations on Cloud Outsourcing. These detailed guidelines set out the EBA expectations that Competent Authorities (The Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulatory Authority) in Member States should adopt.

Regulated Firms that utilize Cloud based solutions will be expected to have undertaken appropriate due diligence on their Service Provider. This may be relatively straightforward when using the likes of Google / Amazon Web Services or Microsoft - but what about those "white label" suppliers or resellers?

Regulated Firms will need to know significantly more about the entities that they are trusting to retain sensitive and confidential Customer data - and the EBA recommendations include a list of twelve areas that should be considered and documented.

Firms will need to show

Whether the outsourcing has been assessed as material.
Whether the cloud service provider supports business operations that are time critical.
An assessment of the cloud service providers suitability
Details of the last risk assessment of the outsourcing arrangement
Identification of an alternative service provider, where possible.

This will impact those Regulated Firms that are looking to refine / update their current business model to utilize more Technology based solutions. Interesting times.

More about the EBA Report on Cloud outsourcing

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Fri, 29 Dec 2017 09:26:00 +0000

The European Banking Authority (EBA) have published its recommendations for the use of cloud based service providers by financial institutions.

The recommendations build upon the original recommendations on outsourcing that date back to 2006 - when the notion of using cloud based solutions was in its infancy.

The recommendations come into force from 1 July 2018.

Given that compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) comes into force on 25th May 2018 this is also likely to be of interest to the FCA.

The guidance requires Firms to adequately inform the competent authorities of any material activities to be outsourced to cloud service providers.

The guidance specifies that the following need to be made available:

the name of the cloud service provider and the name of its parent company (if any);
a description of the activities and data to be outsourced;
the country or countries where the service is to be performed (including the location of data);
the service commencement date;
the last contract renewal date (where applicable);
the applicable law governing the contract;
the service expiry date or next contract renewal date (where applicable).

It will be interesting to see how the FCA manages this issue. If, having identified form big data analysis that there is a concentration risk of many Firms using the same Cloud Based Service Provider (CBSP) and something were to happen to that CBSP then the impact on Firms, Clients and the Market could be interesting.

Outsourcing to the Cloud? Expect the FCA to show more interest in this area soon....

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Thu, 28 Dec 2017 10:57:00 +0000

The European Banking Authority (EBA) have published their findings and recommendations on outsourcing to cloud service providers.

A copy of the report may be found at

http://www.eba.europa.eu/documents/10180/1712868/Final+draft+Recommendations+on+Cloud+Outsourcing+%28EBA-Rec-2017-03%29.pdf

The recommendations are intended to provide additional guidance to credit institutions and investment firms - thankfully on a proportionate basis depending upon the size, structure and operational environment of the institution.

Institutions are expected to mitigate risks when outsourcing - has the firm thought about the risks of "chain outsourcing"; does the Firm have a contingency plan / exit strategy if a change of Cloud Service Provider is needed?

The implementation date for these recommendations is 1st July 2018

Getting started with GDPR

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Wed, 27 Dec 2017 12:31:00 +0000

Firms have until 25th May 2018 to fully implement the requirements of GDPR and the new Data Protection Bill.

The ICO have published plenty of useful information about what needs to be done - and recently launched a help desk for Small Businesses.

One of the first steps would be for the Firm to complete the on line questionnaire - details may be found at

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-reform/getting-ready-for-the-gdpr/

You may wish to have a go at completing the questionnaire - at the end you are able to print off / save your results as a pdf - this will give you a shopping list of any areas that need to be updated.

Shopping around

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 10:59:00 +0000

Those Firms that have General Insurance Clients that have annually renewable Insurance policies will need to make further changes to their documentation from April 2017.

The FCA have published new requirements in PS16-21 outlining changes expected. In particular, those clients that are at the forth renewal of a policy will need to be informed to consider "shopping around". Examples of the wordings that can be used include :

‘You have been with us for over five years. You may be able to save money if you shop around.’

‘Have you checked that your insurance cover still meets your needs? Have you considered shopping round to find the best deal for the cover you want?’

‘You have been with us for a number of years. You may be able to get the insurance cover you want at a better price if you shop around.’

Interestingly, there are a number of exemptions that apply - such as monthly renewable policies and long term policies. The requirement only applies to Retail Insurance and not Commercial Lines.

If you need help with your disclosure requirements do get in touch.

Compliant Solutions Limited - experts in helping Financial Services Businesses deal with the business challenges of Financial Conduct Authority Compliance - for help contact ian@compliantsolutions.co.uk

Simple marketing idea for Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 12:47:00 +0000

This year, we included a little something that went out with our company Christmas card and a couple of clients asked what it was for...

The card holder is made of a durable rubber and can accommodate a couple of business cards - never get caught short again....

HMRC Notifications

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 16:24:00 +0000

HMRC are tightening their grip on Financial Advisers and those clients with offshore assets.

Firms have until 31 August 2017 to issue the following to any UK tax resident that has received advice about offshore income or assets. This would include :

A source of relevant foreign income
A source of employment income
An Asset
A Financial Account

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/557296/client-notification-letter.pdf

Should HMRC identify any client that has undeclared offshore assets and they have not been provided with a copy of the circular then the fine will be £3000 per incident for the Firm

Might be an idea to issue these circulars via email and keep a record

Guidance to sending out the client notification letter may be found at

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/client-notification-income-or-assets-abroad/notes-on-how-and-when-to-send-the-client-notification-letter

How to handle an FCA Regulated Complaint - part one

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Thu, 10 Nov 2016 12:03:00 +0000

The Financial Conduct Authority has issued detailed rules on how businesses should handle complaints and these may be found in the DISP section of the FCA handbook.

The DISP rules apply to all FCA Regulated businesses and include details of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

Complaints come in all shapes and sizes - and Firms need to be able to identify and respond promptly - staff need to be aware of their responsibilities and the correct escalation process within the Firm.

The FCA glossary defines a complaint as :

"any oral or written expression of dissatisfaction, whether justified or not, from, or on behalf of, a person about the provision of, or failure to provide, a financial service or a redress determination, which :

alleges that the complainant has suffered (or may suffer) financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience; and

relates to an activity of that respondent, or any other respondent with whom that respondent has some connection in marketing or providing financial services or products, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Financial Ombudsman Scheme."

All regulated businesses are required to have an effective complaints handling procedure - and staff trained appropriately. The Procedure will need to take into account

The time limits for dealing with a complaint
The review process including "independence" of review where possible
For eligible complainants - details of their right to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Details of the Firms procedure should be published and made available to complainants - most Firms will include this in their Terms of Business Letters / Initial Disclosure Documents at the initial point of contact.

A further copy of the complaints procedure should also be made available when the complaint is acknowledged.

So you have received a complaint what to do next I hear you ask?

Collect the full facts of the case - is it "our" complaint?

If it is our complaint then are you required to notify your PI Insurer immediately?

Is the matter something that can be resolved quickly? Where the "issue" can be resolved within three working days then a "Summary Response Communication" needs to be issued and details of the FOS scheme provided. For Lloyds of London Insurance Complaints then details of the Lloyds scheme need to be provided.

Where the complaint relates to a Third Party then the case should be sent on to the Third Party and a response sent back to the Complainant - explaining that the matter has been referred to [name] at [Firm]. Records should be kept of the complaint - and included with other data as part of a root cause analysis review.

Compliant Solutions Limited - experts in helping Financial Services Businesses deal with the business challenges of Financial Conduct Authority Compliance - for help contact ian@compliantsolutions.co.uk

Staying safe - a few suggestions

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 11:27:00 +0000

FCA Regulated business owners are acutely aware of the need to protect the personal data of clients.

Firms will hold confidential customer information about finances / wealth / medical details and the like. Such information would be of great interest to those with a criminal intent - and as a result Regulated Firms need to be able to reassure customers that their personal data is safe.

Here are a few questions that may be of use:

Does your Firm have a designated person responsible for the maintenance, storage and destruction of customer data?

Does your Firm have written procedures for the storage and destruction of both hard copy and electronic customer data including its secure disposal?

Does your Firm have arrangements to shred obsolete paper records?

If using laptops, does your Firm employ any additional controls around their use? Are files encrypted to ensure that they cannot be accessed by people outside of your Firm should the laptop be lost or stolen?

When disposing of obsolete equipment do you ensure that any data on the device has been removed?

Does the Firm have up to date anti virus & firewall software on all devices?

Does the Firm have a policy of regularly updating all security updates on all software and devices?

Do you require passwords to be a minimum of eight characters / symbols and changed regularly?

Do you reuse the same password for different platforms / areas?

If the Firm has a wireless network (wifi) have you implemented a password protocol ?

If a member of staff leaves do you remove their access authorizations promptly?

Are all staff reminded of their personal responsibilities to keep data confidential and not to make unnecessary copies ?

Does the Firm have procedures in place to test that back-up systems operate correctly?

Does the Firm have a Disaster Recovery Plan ? When was it last tested?

Does the Firm use third parties to provide support ? Were the vetting procedures (Due Diligence) adhered to?

Does the Firm permit remote access by third parties / staff ?

Compliant Solutions Limited - experts in helping Financial Services Businesses deal with the business challenges of Financial Conduct Authority Compliance - for help contact ian@compliantsolutions.co.uk

Cyber risks - the Internet of Things

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 19:13:00 +0000

As more and more adverts on televison and the Internet extol the virtues of being able to control your heating / lights / washing machine / CCTV etc from your phone I wonder how many have thought of the potential for cyber attacks?

All of these devices use The Internet of Things to connect devices together - with factory set passwords - often hard coded so that they cannot be changed. As personal computers are starting to become more secure other, less protected devices are becoming targets - with a view to enabling a third party to take them over and potentially bombard targets with traffic. Were a hacker to start using your gagets to spy on you - potentially collecting valuable data along the way.

Often, business owners will take their work home - and with cloud based storeage the days of having to carry boxfuls of files have long gone. Many will have spent considerable sums on having a robust defense in the Office including firewalls / anti virus software / Policies and procedures on Internet / Data useage etc.

Is the home "safe as houses?"...something to think about.....

Compliant Solutions Limited - experts in helping Financial Services Businesses deal with the business challenges of Financial Conduct Authority Compliance - for help contact ian@compliantsolutions.co.uk

All change (again) for disclosure requirements

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 11:18:00 +0000

The Financial Conduct Authority have published a further policy statement - this time about removing ineffective disclosure requirements.

Policy Statement 16/23 sets out the planned changes which take affect from 1st February 2017.

The FCA will allow Firms to continue to use the Combinded Initial Disclosure format - but the use of the Key Facts logo will have to be removed. The FCA have confirmed that "old stock" may be used up.

The objective of these further changes is to enable consumers to be able to make an informed decision about the services that they are subscribing to.

Within Annex C of the Policy Statement the FCA have also made a change to the Consultancy Charging and remuneration requirements. From 27 March 2017 Firms will need to take reasonable steps to ensure that its repesentatives, when making contact with an employee with a view to giving a personal recommendation on his/her employer's group personal pension / stakeholder scheme inform the employee that :

The Firm will be providing a personal recommendation on the GPP / Group Stakeholder scheme provided to the employer

Whether the employee will be provided with a personal recommendation that is restricted to the GPP / Group Stakeholder scheme provided by the employer ir the recommendation will also cover other products

That the employee will have to pay an adviser charge (if applicable) unless the employer is paying the consultancy charge / fee

Compliant Solutions Limited - experts in helping Financial Services Businesses deal with the business challenges of Financial Conduct Authority Compliance - for help contact ian@compliantsolutions.co.uk

....and a few more things to think about

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Mon, 24 Oct 2016 08:52:00 +0000

Another weekend - another headline (this time in the Financial Times) that a major cyber attack had taken place. Traffic to hundereds of websites including the FT and Twitter was disrupted - with millions of users unable to gain access. Not good if your business site had been attacked.

For those businesses that are dependant upon the Internet this must be of concern. Financial Instituions are driving more and more of their services "on line" - leaving Customers exposed should a denial of service attack take place - simplistically put, this would involve a software virus taking over thousands of computers and then inundating a website with requests and causing the server to crash.

SMEs are unlikely to be the target of such attacks - but we all now are reliant upon third party suppliers - Banks / Insurers / Investment Houses etc and should their systems be subject to such an attack then we all would be affected.

Having up to date anti virus software therefore is essential - does your business have a policy on internet usage ? Viruses are typically spread via e-mails with attachments / links - decent anti virus software.

What about memory sticks? Often, individuals may save / carry data on such a USB drive - could your data be stolen? Is the date held securely - password protected / encrypted? Most operating systems offer to scan a memory stick before opening - how often do you "skip" that step? - might be worth changing your practice going forward.

When was the last time you reviewed your data security policy?

The Robots are coming - Fintech and Cyber Crime

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 11:22:00 +0000

Driving in to work this morning I heard a report that ransomewhere attacks were up significantly and that businesses in the City of London were a primary target.

Having recently attended an informative workshop that focused on this growing risk to businesses I thought that it might be useful to remind people some of the obvious (and less obvious) risks.

How many businesses have a robust disaster recovery plan in place ?

When was the last time that it was tested? The recent problems with SSP software house highlighted how dependent many businesses are on software solutions - many businesses struggled. How would you have coped?

That said, my previous plan failed several years ago - I had an office and my house was 1/2 a mile away. A local electrcity sub station was put out f action by vandals and we lost power at both premises.

During the July 2005 bombings in london one of our clients plans overlooked the fact that staff may not be able to get home in the event of a disaster.

Still happy that your plans stack up and are robust?

How many businesses keep their data backed up - off and on site? What checks did you do regarding the supplier(s) that you are using - how secure are they holding your data?

Anti virus software - keep it up to date

Passwords - don't leave them on a post it note on your PC - something that I recently came across when visiting a client recently.

Data encryption - how secure is the content of your emails? Just imagine how many people would get to see / read that post card that you send home from your last Holiday - the same applies to e-mails only this time read by robots....

PC screens - How many times have you been able to see the contents of a poorly positioned screen when walking by an office window? Could someone read the contents of your screen(s) from outside?

As more and more businesses are looking to develop automated systems we are moving into a world where the Robots take over.

Something to think about......

If you would like a copy of our checklist of businesses drop me a line...ian@compliantsolutions.co.uk

Capital Adequacy For IFA practices and the use of subordinated loans

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 10:20:00 +0000

PS15/28: Capital resources requirements for personal investment firms (PIFs) is essential reading for the owners of Directly Authorised IFA practices. New capital requirements will apply from June 2016 and will result in all Firms having to review and potentially increase the amount of assets set aside to meet the new minimum capital requirements.

For PIFs (Personal Investment Firms) the new requirement will be the greater of £20,000 or 5% of the Firms Investment Business annual income.

Where the Firm has permission to manage portfolios of, deal as principal in, or hold client money for life policies the capital requirement increases to 10% of the Firms Investment Business annual income.

The Financial Conduct Authority have confirmed that Small Firms will have an interim minimum capital requirement of £15,000 or 5% from June 2016 rising to £20,000 in June 2017.

Subordinated Loans: Personal Investment Firms

The repayment of a subordinated loan remains the same as previously, meaning that the loan may only be repaid where the firm holds 120% of its capital requirement once the loan has been repaid.

By way of example:

Turnover £200,000

Subordinated Loan £20,000

Minimum Capital requirement: £24,000 (£20,000 x 120%)

Capital and Reserves: £40,000

Here, as the 120% threshold has been reached the Firm could consider seeking permission to reduce the subordinated loan by up to £16,000 (£40,000 - £24,000).

From June 2017 Personal Investment Firms will be restricted as to the maximum amount of a subordinated loan may be included in the capital adequacy calculations:

([Amount of a firm's capital and reserves] – [Intangible assets and preference share capital]) x 400%

For any amount of the subordinated loan exceeds this calculation, the excess must be treated as a liability against the calculation of own funds.

The revised rules do not provide a list of how this capital requirement must be held or detail how certain assets have to be revalued (depreciated).

For more help contact us at www.compliantsolutions.co.uk

Help with maintaining your Financial Conduct Authority Authorisation

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Thu, 17 Dec 2015 18:08:00 +0000

Verification of Identity - are Bank Statements OK?

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:34:00 +0000

An interesting question,

Regulated Firms are required to undertake appropriate verification of prospective customers including Identity; address and source of funds. Firms also need to undertake enhanced due diligence if the prospective customer is a politically exposed person.

Part I of the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group guidance notes provide a "safe harbour" for Firms and covers clarity on obtaining standard evidence.

Current bank statements issued by a regulated financial sector firm in the EU or equivalent jurisdiction are acceptable where the Statement is an "Original". The development of paperless facilities has meant that many prospective clients may only receive "on line" statements. Online statements and those printed from Account Services terminals within Bank Branches are not acceptable and an alternative means of verification of address should be obtained.

Care is also needed as any "originals" need to be recent - less than three months old and correspond with the address provided by the prospective customer.

Getting Ready for the Mortgage Credit Directive

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 10:46:00 +0000

The objective of the Mortgage Credit Directive (MCD) is to enable a level playing field for providers and intermediaries across the European Union and promote cross border activity.

Mortgage businesses will need to be ready for 21 March 2016 - the clock is ticking.

Lenders will need to review and refine their affordability and forbearance arrangements - with borrowers likely to be subject to even more intrusive scrutiny of income and expenditure.

RIP the Key Facts Illustration - Firms will have to provide a European Standard Information Sheet (ESIS).

The formula for calculating the Annual Percentage Rate is also going to have to be changed and require Firms to calculate the Annual Percentage Rate of Charge (APRC). Given that Firms will be allowed some transitional allowance for implementing the changes I fear that this will leave borrowers even more confused as different institutions may be operating on the old or new basis for a while.

Firms that currently undertake Buy to Let Mortgages will need to act promptly to apply to undertake a Variation of Permission with the Financial Conduct Authority via the CONNECT system - for existing Mortgage Brokers this will be a relatively simple tick two boxes exercise and the payment of a modest additional fee to the FCA. The FCA will be introducing a new category - Consumer Buy To Let Mortgages - which will be subject to the MCOB regime from March 2016.

Second Charge lending will also become subject to the MCOB regime from March 2016 - and as a result such Firms will need to think about longer term requirements - including ensuring that all relevant staff are appropriately qualified to level 3.

As with most regulatory issues the devil is in the detail....

Alternative Dispute Resolutions for Consumer Disputes

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Cass) — Thu, 09 Jul 2015 17:47:00 +0000

The Alternative Dispute Resolutions for Consumer Disputes (Competent Authorities and Information) Regulations 2015 SI No 542 came into force on 9th July.

Full details may be found at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/542/pdfs/uksi_20150542_en.pdf

Details of the Financial Ombudsman Service are already included in Terms of Business / Initial Disclosure Documents etc. The new Regulation now also requires a statement to appear on Websites of "Traders" and a suggested wording is as follows :

"The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is an agency for arbitrating on unresolved complaints between regulated firms and their clients. Full details of the FOS can be found on its website at www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk."

The definition of " Trader" is sufficiently broad to cover most "by way of business" activities and as a result you will need to add in this additional statement on the home page of your website(s).