10th Annual Financial Services Conference Brussels 9th February

Published: January 2012

By: Anthony Smith

http://www.eu-ems.com/summary.asp?event_id=101&page_id=752

An opportunity to meet the movers and shakers in the European arena.

Transact CASS Fine £3.5m

Published: December 2011

By: Anthony Smith

The FSA continue to enforce the CASS rules in full regardless of customer detriment.  Transact failed to perform an internal reconciliation for 8 years and had inadequate systems and controls with a lack of experienced senior staff.  Compliance failed to pick up the breaches and relied on audit opinions which also failed to identify the breaches; no excuse for the FSA.

This highlights the need for competent staff who understand the CASS rules at a senior level.....

Mandates

Published: November 2011

By: Anthony Smith

A subtle change in SUP 3.10.5R (1) brings mandates into the CASS audit.  The requirements are simple enough but the application is very wide including fund managers who control and invest client money in a fund.  If you have your CASS audit and find questions being asked about where your authorities are held and the security measures in place then this is why. 

The CASS Audit also has to record all breaches in much more depth than before so records better be up to date an in good order.....

CASS Fine

Published: October 2011

By: Anthony Smith

Another client money fine from the FSA with a £494,000 fine for Towry sends a strong message from the regulator that they will not tolerate errors in the handling of client money especially when you tell them nothing is wrong.  Somehow a response went to a Dear CEO letter saying they complied with the CASS rules when clearly there were significant problems.

This is all about segregation and timely reconciliations.  Although there was a surplus of money in the pot the reconciliation process had not clearly split out client money and firm's money and without accurate reconciliations there could have been delays in the event of a default.....

CMAR Training

Published: September 2011

By: Anthony Smith

If you are looking for CMAR training as a MiFID firm (CASS 6 and 7) you may find an out of date course on the FSA website for the princely sum of £10.  It includes chapters of CASS that no longer exist and does not cover the change in approach since Lehmans including the new rules on binding authorities, CMAR, CF10a and the proposal for recovery plans for CASS firms.

Don't be caught out but talk to an expert.

UCIS

Published: September 2011

By: Anthony Smith

The FSA have issued yet another fine for missale of unregulated collective investment schemes (UCIS).  This time they have also issued prohibition orders against directors including the Compliance Officer.  

When will firms learn the simple requirements for promoting these products?  Basically you cannot generally promote them and only consider certain select clients for whom they may be suitable.

It is also worrying some of these investments appear on platforms and without proper protections could be selected unawares.....

CMAR

Published: September 2011

By: Anthony Smith

The time for producing the Client Money and Assets Return (CMAR) is fast approaching and firms are pulling together their data ready to go to the FSA. Data is required from 1 October and must be submitted within 15 business days of the month end i.e. 19th November 2011.

Our Cloud technology powered by Mettis provides the right tool to complete the return in a fully automated format so the figures can be ready to be submitted in moments.....

Capital returns

Published: August 2011

By: Anthony Smith

The FSA focus on capital returns has highlighted potential errors in the way capital has been created in firms and the use of hybrid capital from preference shares.  Have your Articles of Association been updated to take account of GENPRU?  Well the changes in January 2007 may already take preference shares out of the equation and the latest changes with effect from 31 December 2011 means that no new hybrid capital is allowed and new preference shares cannot be counted as tier 1 capital without signifcant changes to the Articles of Association.....

CASS

Published: August 2011

By: Anthony Smith

CASS compliance has become a fear factor in many firms with the numerous fines dished out by the FSA.  The requirements to submit a CMAR and appoint a CF10a create a number of challenges.  

A good CASS governance structure is very important that addresses all the governance requirements necessary to ensure things do not slip when strategic or external change comes along.  There is much to consider and often the CASS obligations of a firm sit at the heart of its operational structure.....

Platforms the Future

Published: August 2011

By: Anthony Smith

The head long rush into platform technology has been taken on by the life companies wishing to continue doing business post RDR as well as taken on enthusiastically by the wealth managers.  AJS Consultancy Services has been at the heart of these developments creating new investment companies for life insurers and processing their Part IV applications as well as working with the leading platform provider on delivering compliant solutions.....

Auditing for Insurers Amman Jordan

Published: June 2009

By: Anthony Smith

Anthony Smith speaks to an international middle eastern insurance company's group of internal auditors. Arabic, Greek and English speaking tables discussed auditing different parts of insurance including underwriting, reinsurance, finance, new business and servicing. Marine, Solvency II, IFRS7, the fall out from the financial crisis and much more were discussed and reviewed over 2 days in Amman.

The weather was hot and security tight.....

Managing the Regulatory Footprint

Published: April 2009

By: Anthony Smith

Many investors consider putting their nest egg into offshore investment bonds to take advantage of 'tax free' roll up and protection from inheritance tax through trusts. However local tax requirements will still apply and there may be other restrictions on the way to policy is sold depending on the residency of the policyholder.

The impact of the global recession has brought increasing attention to the offshore financial services industry and brought greater attention by governments on the retention of precious tax revenues as the impact of the credit crunch reduces the amount of revenue through regular sources.....

CRD Brussels November 2008

Published: November 2008

By: Anthony Smith

A topical subject given the state of financial markets.

It was suggested that if Basel II had been fully implemented in the States then the current crisis may have been prevented. However it was meant to be fully implemented in Europe in January 2008 but the current problems have still occurred. One worrying observation was that some banks are now too large to rescue.

A regulatory paradign shift is required.....

TCF Workshops

Published: June 2008

By: Anthony Smith

Treating customers fairly (TCF) is one of the key planks in the Financial Services Authority’s (FSA) move to Principle Based Regulation (PCR). Having to implement a series of European directives the FSA are challenged by a rule book that is just too big. If FSA do more than Europe dictates they could be left to go cap in hand to the Commission accused of ‘gold plating’.

But why focus on TCF specifically when there are 11 Principles?....

Business Planning and Support

Published: June 2008

By: Anthony Smith

Business planning and support is another service I am offering to customers. Working with management consultants and accountancy trained business advice experts we can review your accounting systems and management controls to ensure you are getting the best value out of your business.

I have always believed that compliance is really a matter of best business practice. Doing the right thing isn't about putting up barriers to sales but delivering long term profitable business with happy customers who know they are being treated fairly.....

Calling all CEOs

Published: June 2008

By: Anthony Smith

Have you ever wondered who in your firm was responsible for a particular FSA Handbook requirement? Could you easily identify where responsibilty lay in your business and whether you had apportioned responsibility to the appropriate approved person? Perhaps it all lies on your shoulders should the FSA come knocking?

Even in very large firms it is possible to map out the FSA Handbook to enable all the relevant rules to appear against one or more approved persons.....

UCITS Brussels 27 November 2007

Published: November 2007

By: Anthony Smith

UCITS represent 75% of investment in Europe but uneven implementation of directives and non-standardised costly notification procedures has led to a further review and a possible revision of UCITS III. Another lively debate with many leading speakers from across the globe gathered on a grey day in Brussels.

Nial Bohan Head of Unit Asset Management, DG Internal Market, European Commission began the UCITS conference praising the success story of UCITs.....

Principle Based Regulation - Noticing the wallpaper

Published: March 2007

By: Anthony Smith

In the March Epsilon E-zone I touched on the thorny questions of Principle based regulation and what it might mean for firms as MiFID began to drive it through the regulatory agenda. The FSA put out a seminar invite on the subject and had over 600 enquiries forcing them to book a bigger venue so it’s obviously a hot topic right now.

Of course there is nothing new under the sun and as far back as Discussion Paper 18 the FSA put out the feelers on how they saw the evolution of firms from mechanical compliance through to values based firms who went beyond just having a compliance culture or even being beyond compliance to a utopian vision of mature relationship benchmarking built on ethos and values that drives a firm to question its motivations and challenge behaviour from within.....

European Financial Directives 07

Published: March 2007

By: Anthony Smith

We were fascinated to learn the European Commission were busy working on their new Mortgage white paper as we speak. We have the Council of Mortgage Lenders speaking at the European Financial directives Conference and many others who may be able to reveal more. It just goes to show that European Directives are not just about MiFID as our conference on 29 March clearly demonstrates.

We are currently going through a year of unprecedented regulatory change with the implementation of MiFID and CRD and the FSA’s ambitious programme to reform the Conduct of Business rulebook and move towards principle based regulation all at the same time.....

2nd Annual Conference European Financial Directives

Published: December 2006

By: Anthony Smith

2nd Annual Conference European Financial Directives
6 March 2007 London

During East week 2006 we saw around 100 people attend the inaugural European Financial Directives conference in London. This followed a successful event in Brussels’ which was repeated this November to a full house. These events have proved very popular but conscious of the fact that a number of delegates were unable to attend due to the Easter holidays we have chosen a date when as many as possible should be able to make it.....

MiFID Implementation Brussels

Published: November 2006

By: Anthony Smith

MiFID Implementation

The Commission has a challenging time ahead as the time will be as agreed and there will be no further extensions. There will be eight workshops to ensure member states arrive at a common positions and interpretations on implementation and details will be published on their website. CESR are working with experts on level 3 through European experts group for MiFID and other directives. For example determining the boundaries between UCITs and non UCITs transactions in the context of branches.....

MiFID in Exeter

Published: July 2006

By: Anthony Smith

HM Treasury’s role with MiFID is in negotiations with the EU over legislation and changes to UK legislation. MiFID is a key EU directive affecting the buying and selling of financial instruments and began with the Financial Services Action Plan in 98/99 with a view to achieving a long established aim of a single market in investment services throughout Europe. The ISD had failed to remove barriers as member states could put up their own restrictions and the UK very much championed the cause rather than MiFID being something imposed by Europe.....

A View from the Regulator – Edinburgh

Published: July 2005

By: Anthony Smith

We were pleased to welcome Duncan Gracie, Manager Small Firms Division and Geoff Rae, Associate from the FSA’s Edinburgh office, together with John Bourbon on 28 July at the Edinburgh office of Deloitte. Andrew Murray, Regional Chairman chaired the proceedings. Our thanks go to Deloitte for their hospitality in hosting the event.

The FSA’s Edinburgh presence had been low-key and there was a relatively small team doing mostly desk based monitoring.....

Financial Promotions Cardiff 2005

Published: July 2005

By: Anthony Smith

The South West (and Wales) region was pleased to be welcome back once again to the capital of Wales by our hosts Legal & General. We were especially privileged to here from Tony Katz, FSA Financial Promotions Manager and Mike Cowie Legal & General’s Regulatory Developments Technical Manager a name familiar to most of us having worked for many years at PIA and FSA. We were also pleased to see a good attendance at the event especially to new members attending their first meeting.....

Disclosure

Published: May 2005

By: Anthony Smith

Disclosure – key points – Depolarisation Seminar 23 February
• We ran through 6 questions on disclosure and the Menu with most of the audience split on the answer or failing to offer an opinion, so a lot of confusion out there on what is required.
1. If an IFA offering mortgages, investment and general insurance do you need to use the CIDD by 1 June?
2. Can a fee only IFA receive commission for protection only products?....

FSA Supervisory Focus and handling an Arrow style visit

Published: May 2005

By: Anthony Smith

The South West region was pleased to welcome Steve Williams, Retail Firms Division Manager of FSA, and Kate Fleming and Philip Ryley of TLT, to talk about risk based supervision and dealing with an FSA ARROW style visit. We also express our thanks to TLT solicitors for hosting the event. We were also grateful to John Bourbon for attending his first event in the South West.

Steve began his presentation explaining how risk-based supervision assists FSA to meet its objectives by embedding the principles of good regulation and focuses on key risks using thematic and other regulatory tools.....

Depolarisation

Published: May 2005

By: Anthony Smith

Another successful joint event with the Insurance Institute of Bristol brought an audience of around 70 people on a cold snowy afternoon at Axa on the edge of north Bristol. Fay Goddard Director of Policy, AIFA and Peter Williams Head of Industry Development at Aegon UK gave an interactive presentation.

We began with six questions testing the limits of our knowledge on the use of initial disclosure documents (IDD) and the Menu.....

CIMIRF comes to HBOS in Leeds

Published: May 2005

By: Anthony Smith

We were very grateful to welcome Tim Pither and Chris Pask from the FSA to our latest CIMIRF meeting held on 17 May in Leeds, chaired by the North Regional Chairman Rod Hepple-Wilson and hosted and organised by Anthony Smith our South West Regional Chairman who gratefully acknowledges the assistance of his colleagues in Leeds for making the event possible.

Tim Pither began by outlining some of the work the FSA is involved with during the first few months of general insurance regulation.....

Complaints: Are You Treating Your Customers Fairly?

Published: April 2005

By: Anthony Smith

We were pleased to be welcome by Travers Smith on Thursday 27 April to hear from Walther Merricks of the Financial Ombudsman Service, Jane Whittles Director, Governance and Control, IAM at Abbey and Margaret Chamberlain of Travers Smith.

Walter Merricks began by saying TCF impact of FOS is ‘not a lot’ but eventually maybe. FOS has to operate under the broad principles of the law, rules and industry practice. TCF is really directed towards senior management systems and controls.....

Compliance Institute Mortgage and Insurance Regulatory Forum (CIMIRF) Bristol

Published: March 2005

By: Anthony Smith

We were pleased to welcome 3 FSA speakers at Deloitte in Bristol on 8 March. Our thanks go to our hosts who welcomed our South West Chairman Mark Ross from Ernst & Young.

Chris Paske who attended CIMIRF in Leeds last year went through what FSA had done in mortgage and general insurance regulation over the past year. The M & GI programmes followed a thematic approach choosing an important issue and investigating it across a sample of firms e.....

Financial Promotions in the Midlands

Published: February 2005

By: Anthony Smith

Nick Jones, Manager, Communications and Strategy Financial Promotions Department FSA began with a presentation on what the FSA is trying to achieve through the financial promotions regime. Financial Promotions fit into the Retail Agenda and are integrated into the Treating Customers Fairly project aiming for firms to produce information that is clear, fair and no misleading with the emphasis here being on fair. There is an information gap between firms and consumers with some very complex products consumers do not understand.....

CIMIRF at Canary Wharf 19 November

Published: November 2004

By: Anthony Smith

Despite the problems with the Jubilee line we arrived safely at Canary Wharf to begin with a presentation from Jonathan Fischel of the Retail Firms Division FSA. FSA are well on track with authorisations although there are a very large number of smaller firms authorisations are moving steadily upwards as they did with mortgage firms at NM. This has been a major task with around 75% of applications raising regulatory issues of which half were investigated and remedial action taken.....

The South West welcomes CIMIRF at TLT

Published: September 2004

By: Anthony Smith

On Friday 10 September, thanks to the generosity of TLT solicitors, the South West Region welcomed the Compliance Institute’s Mortgage & Insurance Regulatory Forum (CIMIRF aka ‘smurf’) to its quarterly regional seminar where we also had in attendance Steve Williams Group Manager of FSA’s Retail Firms Division.

From April the FSA has been split into three business units covering Wholesale regulation, Retail regulation and Regulatory Services.....

Training and Competence

Published: May 2004

By: Anthony Smith

On Friday 21 May the South West welcomed Sarah Thwaites from FSA to talk about ‘what T&C means for you’. The event was co-hosted with the Insurance Institute of Bristol. Mike Jones, Compliance Advice Manager from Axa gave the industry response relating his practical experiences with T&C and plans to implement the new regime for general insurance in Axa. Our thanks go to Axa for hosting the event in their magnificent auditorium, which was big enough to accommodate one of our largest audiences of around 80 people.....

Compliance Institute comes to Cardiff - Financial Promotions

Published: March 2004

By: Anthony Smith

On a sunny afternoon in Cardiff we were very pleased to welcome Paul Jennings Senior Associate FSA Financial Promotions, Linda Bevin Technical Training Manager Legal & General and Anthony Smith Compliance Manager Clerical Medical. Although a departure from our regular venues in Bristol a large audience braved the journey across the Severn to take part in another lively and informative event organised by the South West Committee. Our thanks go to Legal & General for sponsoring the event.....

Complaints Seminar South West Region

Published: May 2003

By: Anthony Smith

Our thanks go to Bristol & West for accommodating such a large crowd of around 90 people to the South West Region’s seminar on complaints handling with David Millington, Ombudsman Financial Ombudsman Service and Mark Smith of Zurich Financial Services. Another combined event with the Insurance Institute of Bristol organised by Paul Timmins. Paul’s profile and photo can be found on the South West regional pages of the member website as can the slides for this event under ‘Seminars’ by kind agreement of the speakers.....