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.



Pension Transfer charging
Alistair MacDougall Compliance abridged, FCA, P1, Pension, Pension Transfer, PI, transfer
Policy Statement PS 20-06 stated that a firm providing pension transfer advice “… may also not charge less than it would charge for investment advice of the same value”. That seems clear enough, but the rule that gives effect to this statement is subtly different. COBS 19.1B.7 states: “A firm should not charge less […]