FCA Authorisation
There are many questions to be answered about FCA Authorisation, over time we hope to answer them all in these blogs. So, let’s start with the question we get asked the most… Do I need FCA Authorisation? In almost all cases, yes. The most common exclusions are if you are offering less than 12 payments over less than 12 months and charge no interest or if you are only selling to limited companies, so our two biggest customers are retailers and automotive dealers – you will need to be authorised. Once you’re authorised, you will have annual fees to pay, this fee for the average car dealer is around £160 per annum, but this is going to rise to £350 per annum, your FCA licence doesn’t expire, but it can be revoked!! if you fail to pay your ongoing fee’s and file your reports then this will happen… but hey!! That’s why you’ll get us to do it for you. There are a few different ‘levels’ of FCA Licence available, but if you’re a motor dealer or retailer, you will need FCA permissions for credit broking, and more often than not you will need ‘Limited Permissions’. We always get asked how long will it take for my licence to be authorised? The FCA state for a standard Limited Permission Licence it can take up to six months, however for The Compliance Guys Ltd clients, the average is around three to four weeks if everything is correct.
Appointed Representatives (AR’s)
An appointed representative (AR) is a firm or person who runs regulated activities and acts as an agent for a firm we directly authorise. This firm is known as the ARs ‘principal’. There must be a written contract between the principal and the AR documenting the arrangement Appointed Representatives are not authorised by the FCA. Instead, they are registered with the FCA by an authorised firm that, in this case us ‘The Compliance Guys Ltd’ or as the FCA call that firm a ‘Principal’. We ‘The Principle’ would allow the AR to facilitate in finance much like you would if you was directly authorised, many firms like comfort of being an appointed representative as they can learn more about what’s needed by having their Principle close at hand, you can pick the phone up to us and ask questions whenever you like and get a straight answer (something that’s a lot more difficult with the FCA); retailers or automotive dealers have a bit of an advantage too…what I hear you cry? Well, the partnerships we have in place at The Compliance Guys means, that if you commit to a certain amount of paid out deals each month, we have brokers in place who will subsidise your AR status! Yes, you could have The Compliance Guys as your Principle, one of the best brokers in the UK as your supplier and pay a vastly discounted rate each month or nothing!! Being an Appointed Representative agent under The Compliance Guys you would also have full access to our bespoke compliance system ‘Klassify’; which will help with your ongoing responsibilities, keep your sales process slick and lean, we’ve even given you invoicing and training, along with several other automated processes, enabling you to be regulated and compliant. #CaringNotScaring