Home Services News Views Contact

Compound Growth

Quarterly Consultation

8th December 2016

The FCA have now issued their Quarterly Consultation Paper, CP16/39 (Quarterly Consultation No.15) related to various proposed amendments to the FCA Handbook.

This quarter’s consultation topics include:

COBS: Pension Projection Rules

The FCA proposes to make changes to the pension projection rules to remove conflicts with the Conduct of Business sourcebook, specifically COBS 13 Annex 2, in relation to providing risk warnings to scheme members with safeguarded-flexible benefits.

This topic of consultation will be open for six weeks to enable final rules to be made prior to DWP’s first proposed implementation date of 6 April 2017, thus comments should be submitted to the FCA by the deadline of 13 January 2017.

DEPP: Decision Procedure and Penalties manual

The FCA proposes to make changes to the DEPP manual that sets out the regulator’s decision-making process under the Money Laundering Regulations (MLR) 2007 (MLR).

In particular the regulator proposes that:

for proposals and decisions about cancelling a registration of a relevant person, the decision will be taken by the Regulatory Decision Committee (RDC) of the FCA, in accordance with DEPP 3.2 or 3.3, and
for proposals and decisions to impose a civil penalty on a relevant person failing to comply with conditions in the MLR 2007, the decision will be taken by the RDC in accordance with DEPP 3.2 or 3.3

Comments on the FCA’s proposals should be submitted by 2nd February 2017.

Enforcement Guide (EG) & the Decision Procedure and Penalties manual (DEPP)

The regulator is looking to make changes to both EG and DEPP to set out their decision-making process under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 (CCBS). Comments on the FCA’s proposals in this regard should also be submitted by the 2nd February 2017.

COBS: Adviser Charging for Vertically Integrated Firms

The Financial Advice Market Review (FAMR) published its final report on the market for financial advice in March this year. Within this final report were a number of recommendations, including that ‘The FCA should consult on guidance about the cross-subsidisation rules in relation to the interpretation of ‘long term’ and the flexibility allowed.’

Thus, the FCA is now proposing to make changes to COBS on adviser charging for vertically integrated firms.

Those wishing to make comment on this topic should do so by the deadline of 2nd February 2017.

Disclosure Guidance and Transparency sourcebook (DTR)

The FCA is proposing to make changes to the DTR to reflect the Transparency Directive Regulatory Technical Standards on the European Electronic Access Point, In particular, new rules would be added to Chapter 6 of the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules sourcebook.

Comments on the FCA’s proposals should be submitted by 2nd January 2017.

TC: Training & Competency

The regulator is looking to make changes to the Training and Competence sourcebook (TC). Specifically, the FCA is proposing to amend:

the table of appropriate qualifications;
the time limits for an employee to attain an appropriate qualification; and
the Glossary definition of accredited bodies to reflect recent name changes.

Any comments in this regards should be returned to the FCA by 2nd February 2017.

Regulatory Reporting

The FCA is proposing to make changes to regulatory reporting requirements, specifically addressing the following:

Deletion of outdated text in the Supervision manual and the Consumer Credit sourcebook
Clarifying the complaints form contained in DISP 1 Annex 1R
Introduction of the permission of operating an organised trading facility (OTF) into SUP 16 .12
Change to notes for completing product sales data (PSD) reporting requirements; and
Changes to guidance notes and the FCA’s website help text to clarify how to report question 6 on fees in form CCR007

Comments should be returned to the regulator by 2nd February 2017 to be considered.