The FCA employs a principle based approach to regulation. Principle 7 states that “A firm must pay due regard to the information needs of its clients, and communicate information to them in a way which is clear, fair and not misleading.”
This is a fundamental cornerstone required of all client communication.
While some degree of technical information is inevitable, your suitability reports should nevertheless be easily understood. One effective way to test the clarity of your suitability reports is to ask a friend or family member, who has no financial services experience, and who is more likely to provide frank observations, to read and to provide critical feedback.
Ukraine – 10% drop reporting
Alistair MacDougall Compliance 2020, 2022, COVID-19, FCA, Update
The current hostilities in Ukraine have caused significant market drops and may continue to do so. Accordingly, a reminder about the 10% drop reporting requirements is timely. Readers will recall the early days of the Covid pandemic in 2020 caused a period of market volatility that necessitated issue of 10% drop notifications to clients. […]