FCA Authorisation
The unique knowledge and background of March's team is central to our success and combines decades of experience across the financial sector, meaning we are ideally positioned to assist with the launch of your new business.
It is vital to us that our clients fully understand their options and March provides expert advice on all regulatory issues ahead of any application. March has helped a vast number of firms achieve FCA authorisation and we undertake management of the entire process, ensuring that the demands on our clients are kept to a minimum.
We provide support in every aspect of the FCA authorisation process, including preparation of regulatory business plans, capital projections, compliance policies and manuals, and all other necessary documentation.
We liaise directly with the FCA on our clients' behalf and seek to secure authorisation as early as possible, providing firms with the compliance framework essential to newly regulated entities.
Ongoing Compliance
Good compliance is key to a successful business and March offers a full range of consultancy services to support a variety of regulated firms. Our aim is to integrate compliance into clients' business processes whilst not making it an undue burden, and provide support and guidance throughout our engagement.
Our consultancy is designed to ensure that firms are fully compliant with the relevant FCA rules, and our typical remit involves tailored compliance monitoring at a frequency appropriate to individual clients, resulting in a formal, detailed report and audit trail. March also provides all essential compliance documentation and periodic updates on significant changes to FCA rules.
Clients rely on March for FCA regulatory reporting via the online Connect and RegData systems, which ensures that a comprehensive audit trail is created to evidence ongoing prudential compliance. This service includes the conversion of a client's financial information into the format and technical specifications of the FCA in accordance with their defined schedule.
March also undertakes ad hoc assignments on specific areas of a firm's business, including governance reviews, mock FCA assessments, and Board presentations.
Training
March consultants have extensive training experience and have presented at a number of notable events in the financial services industry on a wide range of topics.
Training plays a key role in firms wishing to demonstrate that appropriate measures have been taken to develop a suitable compliance culture, and our clients have recognised the benefits gained by providing staff with a forum in which to raise questions and further their understanding of compliance issues.
Our training is often bespoke and tailored specifically towards an individual client or sector, but we also hold regular sessions on areas such as market abuse and anti-money laundering to enable firms to meet their FCA obligations in this regard.
March can also provide online training on a variety of subjects: please contact us if you wish to discuss your training requirements in greater detail.
PSD2 Compliance
The revised Payment Services Directive, better known as PSD2, is a European regulation aimed at bringing increased competition, transparency and security in payment services.
PSD2 is a broad-reaching piece of legislation and aims at bringing increased competition, greater transparency and security across the European payments landscape. One of the fundamental changes is that more payments have been brought in-scope of PSD2. Previously, PSD1 only regulated payments within the EEA and in member state currencies (e.g. GBP, EUR, PLN etc). This changed with PSD2 to cover all payments regardless of currency, both, within the EEA and to/from EEA countries from/to non-EEA countries.
Effectively, there are three categories of payments which are in-scope of PSD2, and each payment category has differing levels of requirements and obligations, which means an increased compliance burden for clients affected by the legislation.
Our PSD2 Compliance practice is headed by Partner Chris Cummins, a noted subject matter expert in payment services and compliance relating to complex retail investment products. Chris will ensure that your firm complies fully with the reporting and regulatory requirements of the revised legislation.
GDPR and Cyber Security
The EU GDPR transformed the way in which personal data is collected, shared and used globally. To ensure GDPR and DPA (Data Protection Act) 2018 compliance, organisations must make changes to policies, processes and contracts, and technical and organisational measures.
Compliance can be complex, particularly for regulated firms, and it is vitally important to ensure that data is being managed in a GDPR compliant manner.
March adopt a risk based approach to GDPR compliance. Our experienced team will build GDPR considerations into your reporting framework, ensuring compliance without the headache.