Financial Services Authority New Rules for Trading Companies

Background The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is an independent organisation responsible for regulating financial services in the UK. The FSA was set up by government. The government is responsible for the overall scope of the FSA’s regulatory activities and for its powers. One of the FSA's aims is to promote efficient, orderly and fair financial markets. The FSA regulates most financial services markets, exchanges and firms. It sets the standards that they must meet and can take action against firms if they fail to meet the required standards.

Trading Companies The FSA have recently introduced new regulations to control the activities of Trading Companies. These regulations apply to Trading Companies which mainly carry out the following activities: receiving client orders executing client orders arranging for client orders to be executed executing orders for that result from decisions by the Trading Company to deal on behalf of a client placing orders for a client that are based upon advice provided by the Trading Company

The FSA Requirements Making Records A Trading Company must keep a copy of relevant electronic communications. This is in addition to recording relevant telephone conversations. Electronic communications includes: fax instant messaging Saving Records Trading Companies should keep records for at least 6 months Stored in a way accessible for future reference by the FSA the FSA must be able to access the records any corrections or other amendments must be clearly identified it must not be possible for the records to be changed or altered

Proposed Next Steps We can assist as follows: Identify potential areas of non-compliance Discuss compliance with each user Confirm any areas of non-compliance Identify products to support full FSA compliance Confirm products against individual user/business requirements Client proposal Implementation and testing