NEW TO REGULATION
Whilst a firm does not need to involve a compliance consultant in the application process, clients have valued our help, especially in breaking through the jargon used in the process and in understanding the FCA rules.
We can help with as little or as much as needed – We can offer advice only; how to fill in the forms and what you will need to do at each stage. Or we can help you to complete those forms, perhaps short-cutting the many hours you would have to spend in understanding the rules underlying each question. We can help tailor your compliance policies and help with the setting up your procedures. And we can certainly help with the FCA correspondence and technical queries generated during the application process.
You may be thinking of leaving a Network and want to know the differences between your current way of working and being directly authorised. We can help explain regulation under the FCA and the costs involved.
Or… you may be a firm that needs to comply with FCA regulation for the first time, such as firms entering the Consumer Credit Sector. We have helped firms apply for FCA Authorisation who had little experience of FCA rules and regulation.
And… If you are currently in the process of applying then you may have been asked by the FCA to consult a compliance professional in order to get help with certain documents and procedures that they require from you. Whatever the circumstances, we may be able to help you.
The first stage would be to speak to us and describe what stage you are at and what you are thinking. We will ask why you are considering setting up a directly regulated firm (or changing to being directly regulated.) We will then give you an honest appraisal – join a network, go directly authorised, perhaps even – consider a change of plan. If you wish to proceed with our help then we will meet and design a bespoke plan for your firm’s authorisation. We can then allocate what needs doing by the different people in your organisation and those people associated with your organisation – accountants, solicitors, advisers, administrators, etc. We can work out together how much of the process you want us to undertake. We would then set out how to achieve your objective of getting authorised and by what time.
We cannot guarantee you will get authorised… but part of our honest appraisal would be discussing any potential flaws in your business model that could prevent you from getting authorised. The application process can be expensive so it will pay to get advice early in the process.
