Just when you thought you had got your head around the package regulation, we have to introduce you to the financial services regulation, governed by the Financial Services Authority. Specific parts of this large body of regulation will have potential impacts on you . . .
Intermediation: If you are marketing or selling regulated financial products to the consumer (for example travel insurance) then your legal status and conduct come under scrutiny. As a start up business you are very unlikely to become an FSA approved company as it is time consuming and adds some administration requirements onto your business. You have two realistic choices.
- The first is to become an introducer where you pass the customer to an FSA approved company. This company is licensed to sell the financial services product (travel insurance in this example). While this option is relatively simple to set up, it does mean that you cannot actively sell the financial product.
- The second choice is to become an appointed representative of an approved company. The approved company will monitor how you sell etc as they carry the regulatory risk of you miss selling. While this option allows you to sell the financial product, it will be difficult to set up quickly and does incur an administration overhead.