PIMFA Weekly News Bulletin - 15 February 2021

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PIMFA WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN | 15 February 2021 Dear Nigel,

Welcome to the PIMFA Bulletin; grab a coffee and take 10 minutes to read this week's latest industry news impacting you and your firm.

PIMFA VIRTUAL FEST V2 9-10 March 2021 FREE to attend for PIMFA Members & Associates REGISTER TODAY: Click here to book your place

The Latest on Brexit

Mansion House speech: The Bank of England Governor on Equivalence Giving the annual Mansion House speech on 10 February, Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, said that the EU’s insistence on receiving further clarification on how the UK intends to diverge from the current EU regulation, as a condition for considering to grant equivalence, is “a standard that the EU holds no other country to” and he suspects “it would not agree to be held to itself". Bailey said that there are two ways of interpreting this statement, neither of which stands up to much scrutiny. The first interpretation is that the rules should not change in the future and he described this as “unwelcome, unrealistic, dangerous and inconsistent with practice”. The second interpretation is that the EU would only grant equivalence status if the UK agreed to change its rules whenever the EU did.

But he said that this would amount to rule-taking, pure and simple, which is not acceptable when UK rules govern a system 10 times the size of the UK GDP.

Baily made clear that the UK "should not and will not" create a low regulation, high risk, anything goes financial center and system. Such an approach would not be in the UK’s interest or anyone else’s, and added that the UK has a very bright future competing in global financial markets underpinned by strong and effective common global regulatory standards.

Tax Contribution of UK Financial Services in 2020

The City of London Corporation and PwC report on the Total Tax Contribution of UK Financial Services in 2020, published on 9 February, finds that the finance sector’s firms, employees and customers contributed £75.6bn to public finances in tax, in the year to March 2020. Despite turbulence, it is estimated that the sector is set to contribute between £71 billion and £75.7 billion in the current financial year.

The report underlines the importance of the sector as an asset to the UK economy, employing 3% of the workforce (1.1m workers) and 10% of taxes. Beyond the tax contribution, the sector has also supported the wider economy since March 2020 in a variety of ways. The contribution made by the sector is particularly striking given that the coronavirus outbreak has caused a recession of unprecedented magnitude. While the pace and path of recovery from the virus is clouded in uncertainty, the financial services sector provides a welcome element of stability.

Request to Firms – Online Scam Dossier

As part of PIMFA's campaign to get scams and financial harm included in the Online Harms Bill, we are compiling a dossier of online scams to build up an evidence base demonstrating the extent of the problem. We would therefore be very grateful if you could send us any examples of online scams that you have come across. This could be in the form of case studies, scenarios, screen shots of cloned websites or Instagram ads.

Information relating to how a scam was detected and what factors raised any red flags would also be very useful.

If you are able to help, please get in touch with Alexandra Roberts.

Index Weight Changes to the MSCI PIMFA Index Series

In response to quarterly survey submissions from PIMFA member firms regarding the asset allocation to Objective and Equity Risk based model portfolios, the PIMFA Indices Committee has made changes to the index weights of both MSCI PIMFA index series.

Further details can be found here:

- MSCI PIMFA Private Investor Index Series index weight changes.

- MSCI PIMFA Equity Risk Index Series index weight changes.

If you have any queries, please email indices@pimfa.co.uk.

Latest PIMFA Press Releases

PIMFA delighted to welcome Investec’s Ciaran Whelan and Openwork’s Mike

Latest PIMFA Press Coverage

CityAM: Screenshot: Should online harms laws take on the hackers and pirates?

Morrow to Board LoveMoney.com: Clone firm investment PIMFA calls on Government to include economic harm in Online Safety Bill as

scams: how they work, how to spot them

members report rise in increasingly

and stay safe

sophisticated online scams YourMoney.com: Law changes needed to PIMFA calls on Industry, Government and

tackle ‘sophisticated’ online scams

Regulators to work together to create a future advice market that works for all

FTAdviser: PIMFA members warn on rise in online scams

Little regulators can do to stop fraud without action from Government

Investment Week: Investec's Ciaran Whelan joins PIMFA board

FSCS levy forecast of £1bn compensation bill is scandal that shows regulation is

Portfolio Adviser: Liz Field:

failing both consumers and firms

PIMFA prioritises FSCS reform in the year ahead

PIMFA welcomes FCA warning on cryptoassets but calls for more to be done to

Daily Mail: Higher charges loom as

protect consumers

compensation bill hits £1bn

PIMFA's Consultation Responses & Member-Only Guides

PIMFA’s latest Consultation Response is to the FCA’s CP20/24 on a new UK Prudential Regime for MIFID investment firms.

•

Read this and all other PIMFA consultation papers here.

PIMFA's member only guide on Remuneration has been updated.

•

View this and all the latest member only guides here (login required).

EVENTS & LEARNING

PIMFA Events PIMFA VIRTUAL FEST V2 9-10 March 2021 FREE to attend for PIMFA Members & Associates

Following on from the HUGE success of the inaugural event, PIMFA is proud to announce the Virtual Fest V2 will be taking place on 9 & 10 March 2021.

Delivered online over two days, Virtual Fest V2 is a great opportunity for attendees to gain valuable insights, hear from industry experts, earn up to 10 CPD hours and make connections with fellow colleagues.

The Virtual Fest V2 will provide access to a variety of content in the forms of webinars, virtual sessions with speakers & trainers, videos, PDFs and online resources both live and on-demand afterwards.

The agenda includes key areas members have identified as their main short and long-term focus, such as: •

CEO Panel – What Have we Learnt and How to do we Rebuild Together

•

The Future of Work – What do You Need to Know?

•

What Might 2030 Hold for Financial Advisers?

•

Operational Resilience: Lessons Learnt in 2020 & What’s Next in 2021

•

The Future of Regulation And more…

Speakers and panellists are being carefully selected to ensure the delivery of high level content and a broad spectrum of diversity.

If you’d wish to find out more about speaking or sponsoring this event please email events@pimfa.co.uk.

To view a copy of the 2020 post-event report, including profile of attendees and a summary of all sessions please click here.

For more info and to book your place, please click here.

PIMFA Training SM&CR: GETTING YOUR FIT AND PROPER ASSESSMENTS RIGHT FIRST TIME 22 February 2021 Fees: Member: £200 | Non-Member: £250

By the 31st March 2021 solo regulated firms under SM&CR will have to ensure that certified staff are fit and proper (F&P) to do their roles. The FCA FIT handbook provides some guidance to firms how this is to be achieved, but it will be the responsibility of your firm to assess whether your Certified staff are competent, capable, financially sound, and honest. Some of these concepts may seem difficult to define and will inevitably lead to questions as to how the regulators expectations should be interpreted for example, ‘when does poor performance become incompetence?’ Firms need to ensure that staff understand their responsibilities and are competent to carry out F&P assessments against clear standards, building a portfolio of evidential findings.

In this live online learning session we will help you:

• Define competence and capability • Develop the skills to observe, listen and capture evidence all at the same time!

• Conduct a feedback session • Build a portfolio of evidence to demonstrate an individual’s competence and capability • Build a development plan that is SMART.

Who should attend?

Anyone who is about to be or has been recently appointed into a role that requires skills in assessing the competence and capability of others. It can also serve as a refresher for those in existing positions.

It is ideal for those caught within the scope of the Certification Regime performing a role of supervisor and/or are responsible for the assessment of another individual’s fitness and propriety.

For more info and to book your place, please click here.

View all other upcoming PIMFA Events and Learning here.

FCA Financial Lives 2020 Survey

The FCA has released its latest Financial Lives Survey (FLS), looking at consumers’ financial situations, the financial products they choose and their experiences of engaging with financial services firms. According to the October survey, there are now 27.7 million adults in the UK with characteristics of vulnerability such as poor health, low financial resilience or recent negative life events. Having one of these characteristics means that these consumers are at greater risk of harm.This figure is up 15% since the FCA completed its FLS in February last year, when 24.0 million displayed characteristics of vulnerability.

The FCA found that the number of consumers with low financial resilience - overindebtedness, with low levels of savings or low or erratic earnings – has grown. Over the

course of 2020, the number of UK adults with low financial resilience increased from 10.7 million to 14.2 million.

FCA Directory Persons Submission: Show and Tell sessions for solo-regulated firms

The deadline for submission of information about Directory persons to the Register is the 31st March 2021. If you are using the multiple add template (for 10 or more persons) then you need to submit this by the 18th March 2021.

The FCA is running a series of ‘Show and Tell’ sessions which intend to: •

Give a background to the Directory Persons programme and firms’

responsibilities •

Provide an overview of the firm journey

•

Demonstrate a single and multiple submission

•

Take questions and answers

The second session will take place via Teams on 25 February (11am-12pm). If you would like to attend, please email AlexandraR@pimfa.co.uk

Find Out More about PIMFA ...

Bulletin is just one of the many insights and publications PIMFA produces on the latest industry news and issues - most of which are accessible to PIMFA members only.

If you have a query on how to become a member firm, the work we undertake or anything in Bulletin, please contact us at info@pimfa.co.uk.

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