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Cost effective PI insurance for APCC members
Towergate Risk Solutions and Hiscox Insurance Company Limited have teamed up to create an enhanced professional indemnity facility for APCC members.
The competitive premiums which are available to all APCC member firms include professional indemnity, public and employer liability. D&O cover is also available, again at competitive rates, to corporate APCC member firms.
For further information and a proposal form please e-mail charles.wintour@towergate.co.uk.
This financial promotion has been approved by Towergate Underwriting Group Limited. Towergate Risk Solutions is a trading name of Towergate Underwriting Group Limited. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
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FSA Complaints Handling Event for Consultants
The FSA held a complaints handling event for consultants on the morning of Thursday 20 January 2011.
The event was aimed at consultants who carry out assessments of the quality of regulated firms handling of complaints. At the event the FSA set out its findings on regulated firm's complaints handling procedures and how it plans to deal with this area going forward. Consultants were able to ask questions and raise specific issues with the FSA on this subject.
A summary of the event, the presentation slides and the questions and answers session are available to members.
FSA Confirmed Industry Guidance
FSA Confirmed Industry Guidance
As at 1 December 2010 there were only 7 documents containing FSA confirmed industry guidance. These can all be found on the FSA website by clicking here.
The confirmed guidance deals with:
- Banking Conduct of Business
- MiFID Connect - Outsourcing
- MiFID Connect - Suitability and Appropriateness
- MiFID Connect - Investment Research
- AIC guidance on Investment Policies
- Transparency and conflict of interest disclosure in the commercial insurance market
- IMA - Paperless renounciation/transder of units/shares in investment funds
Discounts for members on professional journals
One specialist journal publisher is offering a discount to APCC member firms. The journal is the Journal of Securities Law, Regulation and Compliance.
Journal of Securities Law, Regulation and Compliance
This is a new professional journal analysing current and emerging issues in securities law, regulation and compliance. The journal is published quarterly and members get a 15% discount on the annual subscription. To find out more you need to be an APCC member and to login to this website
Expert Witness Support and Skilled Persons Reports
Many APCC member firms can offer expert witness support for regulatory compliance and much more. An expert witness can provide support whether you are facing a Financial Services and Markets Tribunal or require assistance in a complaint case, at an Ombudsman Hearing or in civil or criminal proceedings.
Members may also provide a skilled person's report under section 166 of FSMA. In accordance with the particular requirements set out by the FSA our members will diagnose areas of concern, verify information provided to the FSA, monitor activities, provide reports on recognised risks and develop recommendations for resolution, assist in the design of a remedial action plan or provide oversight of and report on a remedial action plan.
APCC members are subject to our professional Code of Conduct and go through referencing and peer review on their experience and qualifications before being admitted to membership.
If you need to find a compliance consultancy firm to provide expert witness support or a skilled persons report then go to our list of members and select "expert witness and skilled persons report" in the list of services provided.
FSA working with the APCC on the use of consultants and a firm's organisational systems
The FSA is working with the APCC on the impact of the use of consultants within a firm's organisational controls
In their policy statement on organisational controls the FSA made specific reference to the work it is doing with the APCC on the professional standards of compliance consultants and that it will be exploring with the APCC what might be needed regarding SYSC, as a result of the April 2009 changes to chapter 6 of SYSC.
New financial promotions web pages on the FSA website
The FSA’s new financial promotions website goes live on Friday 28 March. They have completely restructured the pages so that firms can easily find important and practical information to help them with their advertising and communications.
Click here to access the FSA’s new financial promotions website.
The new pages include:
- • Enhanced and completely re-written information on the FSA’s rules and guidance for Mortgages and Home Finance. The FSA will be adding case studies and updated FAQs on dual regulation areas in coming months, including new process maps with a high level overview of the key policy points firms should consider.
- • A casework section with examples of issues where the FSA have taken action and why. These will be added to on a regular basis.
- • Metrics on how the FSA regulates financial promotions and how often the FSA take action. This will be updated on a quarterly basis.
- • A Rules and Guidance section with individual pages on savings and investments, general insurance and mortgages and home finance with more detail about the key rules in the Conduct of Business Sourcebooks.
- • New pages on the regulatory framework for financial promotions, why they matter to the FSA, to firms, to consumers, and how the FSA regulate.
- • A Thematic section for forthcoming reviews (and older ones where the issues on non-compliance or comments on best practice are still relevant).
The full address of the financial promotions website is: <http://www.fsa.gov.uk/Pages/Doing/Regulated/Promo/index.shtml>