We recently posted a news item about the need to apply for interim FCA permissions before the end of November 2013 in order to benefit from a discount.
We have recently attended a seminar where the FCA Authorisations department estimated that they will receive around 51,000 applications. What is interesting is that they estimate that only 39,000 applicants actually require a licence.
Prior to applying therefore and potentially wasting money, you should fully understand when the CCL licence is required. This link provides a useful summary.
One other thing to note. You need to check that your current licence is correctly set up. If it is not, you should amend the licence with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) prior to applying to the FCA for interim permissions.
FCS Transitional Arrangements
Steve Bailey Compliance Update
As you will be aware the Financial Services Authority ceased to be and the Financial Conduct Authority took over the regulation of financial advice firms on 01 April 2013.
The FSA issued PS13/05 last week which includes updated rules and transition arrangements. The policy statement itself is 88 pages but the ‘appendix (3)’ that accompanies it is a mere 1990 pages so you must excuse us for not as yet absorbing every word. The document can be seen here.