FCA launches financial promotions consultation
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has launched a consultation into the forthcoming regulatory gateway for firms wanting to continue approving financial promotions for unauthorised persons.
In July 2020, the Treasury consulted on a Regulatory Framework for the Approval of Financial Promotions. It subsequently confirmed a plan to introduce a new regulatory gateway for authorised firms wishing to approve financial promotions on behalf of unauthorised persons.
The Treasury plans to create a transition period for existing authorised persons, enabling them to continue approving financial promotions until their applications have been assessed.
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The consultation, which launched yesterday (6 December), will run until 7 February 2023. It will affect authorised persons who approve, or intend to approve, financial promotions for unauthorised persons.
Based on the Treasury’s consultation response document, the FCA does not expect the proposals in the consultation to be relevant to authorised persons approving the financial promotions of their appointed representatives (ARs) or of unauthorised persons within their corporate group.
It also does not expect them to apply where an authorised person approves their own financial promotions for onward communication by an unauthorised person.
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The consultation will look at how the regulator should assess applicants at the gateway, its basis for granting or refusing applications, and assess a bi-annual reporting requirement for firms that are given permission to approve financial promotions.
It will also consult on a requirement for firms that are granted permission to approve financial promotions to notify the regulator when they approve, amend or withdraw approval of, a financial promotion, within seven days of doing so.
The consultation will cover plans not to extend the compulsory jurisdiction of the Financial Ombudsman Service to the approval of financial promotions, and changes made to the FCA’s non-handbook guidance for firms that approve financial promotions for investments, and additional text on the Consumer Duty.
An online response form to the consultation is available on the FCA’s website.
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