Growing an existing business
Your business model takes you into an area covered by the Financial Services & Markets Act 2000, or at least you think it probably does. It is a logical extension of your current activities and you know it will succeed in commercial terms. However you have not been regulated before and you would like some reassurance that being FSA-regulated will not be prohibitively expensive or onerous.
Would a free, no-obligation meeting with an expert help?
We offer an introductory meeting with a UHY Hacker Young partner free of charge. All you need to do is email the partner in charge of FSA services, Mike Egan, at m.egan@uhy-uk.com , with some brief details about you and your business.
Many of our clients first came to us in these exact circumstances. In each case, we were able to say for certain whether the proposed new activity needed authorisation - which, occasionally, it did not. Where authorisation was indeed required, we were able to talk the client through the process, including an indication of time-scale and cost.
The FSA application pack takes up a full lever arch file when printed out. The same set of forms applies, whether you are a small low-risk firm or Megabucks Global Investment Bank. There are no unreasonable questions in the entire pack, but it is pretty daunting for those who have not seen it before, and not everyone understands all the technical terms.
The benefit of professional advice
We take a very practical approach, including:
- Advising clients which sections of the application pack concern them directly, and which sections they do not need to worry about;
- Similarly, advising clients which areas of the FSA rule books concern them directly, and which they can safely ignore;
- Explaining all the terminology;
- Helping you to design and implement appropriate systems and documentation;
- Preparing your compliance manual;
- Working out the minimum regulatory capital requirements;
- Explaining their personal responsibilities, which take effect from day one of FSA authorisation, to the owners and directors.
After we have talked our clients through the process, they usually opt to complete the straightforward parts of the pack themselves, and we complete the "difficult bits" based on their input. It's one of those tasks that look arduous at the outset, but is not so bad with the benefit of hindsight.
Our ongoing service to clients
Once a business is authorised, we can help with:
- Preparing the periodic reports to the FSA, and getting them in on time;
- Keeping you up to date with changes to the rules which affect your business (and not bothering you with those that don't);
- Maintaining cost-effective compliance monitoring procedures and records.
We can also audit your accounts and make the various auditors' reports to the FSA.
The next step
If this all sounds like the answer you are looking for, we offer an introductory meeting with a UHY Hacker Young partner free of charge. All you need to do is email the partner in charge of FSA services, Mike Egan , at m.egan@uhy-uk.com , with some brief details about you and your business. We look forward to hearing from you.
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