Introduction On 14 April 2015, the FCA published its final notice fining The Bank of New York Mellon London Branch and the Bank of New York Mellon International Limited (together, “BoNY”) a total of £180 million (reduced to £126 million on account of early settlement) for failure to arrange adequate protection of safe custody assets […]

Life for “small AIFMs” [1] will change in a big way on 1 April 2015 and, despite the date, it’s no joke… In Policy Statement 13/5, the FCA made certain amendments to its client assets (CASS) rules in order to ensure that they remained consistent with the Alternative Investment Fund Management Directive (AIFMD) and to […]

Introduction The requirement to create and maintain a CASS Resolution Pack (CASS RP), formed a key plank in the FCA’s review of the client assets regime in the UK.  It requires each firm which is subject to CASS Chapter 6 (Custody rules) or Chapter 7 (Client money rules) to collate certain information regarding its handling […]

On 10 June 2014, following its original July 2013 consultation paper[1] the FCA published its long-awaited policy statement  and accompanying guidance note detailing changes to the client assets regime in the UK. The policy statement represents a material rewrite of the CASS regime in the UK.  The most significant amendments are summarised here.  A number […]

On 14 January 2014, HM Treasury published the “Final review of the Investment Bank Special Administration Regulations 2011” conducted by Peter Bloxham.  The report meets Parliament’s requirement that the Treasury hold an independent review of the special administration regime (SAR) for investment banks within two years of it coming into force. Five firms have gone […]

Firms continue to take inadequate steps to ensure compliance with the Client Money rules.  The latest case involving insurance broker Towergate highlights the FCA’s renewed sense of purpose and the fact that insurance brokers are not immune. The broker misallocated £15m of client and insurer money over a four year period (from November 2007 to […]

On 3 September 2013, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a press release announcing the final notice it has issued to Aberdeen Asset Managers Limited and Aberdeen Fund Management Limited (“Aberdeen”), fining the firm £7,192,500 for breaches of the FCA’s client money rules.  This fine included a 30% discount for early settlement by Aberdeen. Over […]

On 16 April 2013 I am a guest speaker in a webinar being given by the Forum for Regulatory Change.  The presentation will focus on the future requirements for insurance intermediaries to prepare and maintain CASS Resolution Packs.  It will summarise the law in this area as it applies to insurance intermediaries and will leverage […]

On 20 November 2012, the FSA published a speech given by Richard Sutcliffe, Head of the Client Assets Unit at the FSA on the background and purpose of the unit he leads and its future policy initiatives. The speech underlined the priority given by the FSA to improving the client assets regime.  Mr Sutcliffe noted […]