On 14 February 2025, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a new document, Authorised fund applications – our expectations.

The document sets out the FCA’s expectations, including useful information on the application process and the level of detail to be provided, for firms applying for collective investment schemes to be authorised as authorised unit trusts, authorised contractual schemes, and authorised open-ended investment companies.

The information set out in the document covers some of the specific questions asked by the FCA in the fund authorisation application forms, as well as some of the main areas where applicants have not provided the necessary information. It sets out the minimum information the FCA requires to determine an application.

In relation to the FCA’s general expectations across all applications, the document includes information on: self-contained documents, product and distribution strategy, capacity to act, consistency of information, the need to provide a complete set of documents, and the inclusion of a solicitor’s certificate.

On application specific expectations, areas covered include: fund names, volatility targets, constraints and limitations in policies, investment strategies, benchmarks, stress testing, model portfolios, ESG-related strategies, dealing arrangements, concentrated portfolio, multiple investment advisers, investor communications due to changes to authorised funds, and Long Term Asset Funds.

The FCA highlights that, if an application does not contain the necessary detail, the FCA is likely to consider it incomplete. Incomplete applications are not subject to the usual time limits and could, the FCA warns, ultimately be refused.