FCA Compliance Regulations

We will see your FCA application through from start to finish. Beyond Authorisation, we believe in making small firms self-sufficient in terms of ongoing compliance, but you can also retain us for ongoing compliance support.

Authorisations
We can help with the various decisions and options which lie ahead – from arranging your business in a way that minimises your FCA fee burden, to deciding whether or not what you are planning falls under the regulatory regime (’Perimeter’) at all. We will also waive 25% of our fee if your application is not successful (see Terms and Conditions).

Variations of Permission
We would advise on ensuring that your Scope of Permission is correct for your Activities (e.g. unnecessarily scoped for Client Money, incorrect client categories) and on increasing or decreasing your Scope as appropriate. By ensuring the accuracy of your Prudential Category, we ensure that you’re positioned in the lowest appropriate fee-block. Variations ‘downard’ represent a removal of Permissions – these are still examined by the FCA, and they trigger discussions over factors such as rationale, business model post-Variation, Prudential Category (which they ask you to decide upon), and Fee-Blocks. Variations ‘across’ are minor moves which sit well with the current business model. Variations ‘upward’ can be anything from a minor new activity, to major – in the latter scenario, these amount to mini or even major Authorisations, albeit from the starting point of already being Authorised for other Activities.

Passporting
As surrounded by unknowns as we are, the rule of thumb seems to be to assume that mechanisms are not broken, until it is confirmed that they specifically are.

Cancellations
We will help ensure that your application contains no discrepancies or information inadvertently presented in a way that could cause concern. The FCA has a unique set of risks to deal with when assessing a Cancellation application, for if they make a ‘wrong’ decision, then the firm is gone and out of their jurisdiction for good.

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Proactive rather than merely reacting to events, we aim to ensure that our clients achieve more than mere compliance with regulations. You need to gain positive advantage from compliance, which for us means your profitability and cost-effectiveness.

This does not mean extra work for you. There are no obligations in the initial stages of our relationship and a vital part of our brief for ourselves is that you remain free at all times to focus on your own clients. We will however support you and offer practical assistance in the event of a client dispute – while remaining, as in all matters, utterly impartial.

Nor will we walk away from you leaving a job half done. Instead we offer an ongoing service, briefing you and updating you on a regular basis, and offering specialist training and advice in all critical areas to you and your staff.

In short, Hirett Ltd is a fully competent organisation, a one-stop solution for all compliance issues. Put simply, our aim is to be the best: we believe we have achieved that aim.