These changes affect approximately 1,500 FCA regulated firms that carry out investment business, from the largest investment banks to the smallest investment advisor, who collectively hold over £100bn of client money and £10tn of custody assets.
The final rules address lessons learnt from recent insolvencies, feedback from firms themselves and observations from the FCA’s specialist Client Assets Unit.
David Lawton, Director of Markets said:
“The protection of client assets is central to confidence in the UK markets and fundamental to consumers’ rights and the trust they place with firms. These changes will improve the protection offered to client assets and should speed up the recovery of client assets on a failure of a firm. Coupled with the increased focus the FCA has had on client assets, they will go a long way to ensure that confidence in UK markets is maintained and consumers are protected."
