The FCA has published Consultation Paper 15/20: Investing in authorised funds through nominees (CP15/20).
Previously, the FSA published draft rules and guidance requiring certain nominee companies (defined as ‘intermediate unitholders’) to notify the underlying beneficial owners of units when the fund manager issued certain fund information and voting rights. The draft rules and guidance were to be set out in COBS 14.4 and were due to come into effect on 31 December 2012. However, this date was subsequently deferred until 31 December 2013 in order to resolve certain operational aspects of the rules. In late 2013, the FCA decided to put the implementation of the majority of COBS 14.4 on hold until 31 December 2015. In CP15/20 the FCA proposes to revoke the draft rules and guidance in COBS 14.4 that is scheduled to come into force at the end of this year.
The FCA also states in CP15/20 that it is planning two separate pieces of work that are likely to affect the rationale for most of the COBS 14.4 rules:
- it will publish a Discussion Paper on improving firms’ communications with consumers “very shortly”; and
- it announces that it will begin a market study on asset management later this year. The FCA has not yet determined the detailed scope of the market study, but it may inform how it reconsiders its notification requirements currently in COBS 14.4.
The deadline for comments on CP15/20 is 17 July 2015.
View CP15/20: Investing in authorised funds through nominees, 22 June 2015
