Round Up Autumn 2018

2 Quick catch up... With so much happening in the world of financial services, it’s sometimes difficult to see the wood from the trees. Use this section as a quick refresher, or catch up. It contains summaries of our most important regulatory and technical articles from the last few months. Longer, more detailed versions of these articles are available on our website. Regulatory returns are under scrutiny The FCA has raised concerns over the accuracy of regulatory reports submitted in relation to financial resources and intends to review a sample of returns later this year. It may take further action should their quality not improve. The most common issues encountered by our helpdesk are: -- Not completing all parts of a return, due to inadequate understanding of financial returns. -- Failure to submit all required returns. -- Inconsistent data in different parts of a firm’s return. -- Reporting using incorrect units. -- Not reporting cumulatively (on a year to date basis), for example on returns related to profit and loss. -- The total sum of risk exposures, such as credit risk, not being calculated correctly, leading to an inaccurate figure for the firm’s capital requirements (for firms with managing investment permissions). Remember your returns are one of the few times you engage with the regulator. It’s important they’re accurate and timely as this is an indicator of your firms’ systems and controls, and how well your firm is managed. Poor returns will undoubtedly raise the regulators eyebrows. Our compliance helpdesk helps many firms with their returns. If you need help, don’t hesitate to ask us for guidance. Likewise we have training videos on the website to walk you through each part of your returns in th e regulatory reporting section. Improvements to FCA’s GABRIEL system Did you know it’s now possible to: -- Use your registered email address as your user name. - Register all types of email domain addresses, not just email addresses ending with .co.uk or .com -- Reset your password directly via the FCA’s new self-service tool. No longer do you have to answer security questions to access the system! Action needed - FCA changes its address If you haven’t already, you need to update any documents or other material where you include the FCA’s contact details. You can continue to use your existing stocks of printed material containing the previous address up to 1 July 2019. You don’t need to pro-actively notify them, however, when communicating with existing clients, you should be taking reasonable steps to refer to the up-to-date address. The FCA’s new address is: 12 Endeavour Square Stratford London E20 1JN If you deal with the FCA in Edinburgh, there’s no change.