Financial promotions are essential for regulated firms to grow their businesses but also come with nuances. The rules and regulations require financial promotions to be fair, clear and not misleading. These criteria require judgment based on knowledge and experience.
Compliance with the financial promotions rules is important because this is consistently on the FCA’s priority list. Getting this wrong could lead to requests of removal of the materials, heightening your risk profile in the regulators’ books or more severe consequences such as enforcement and penalties.
Establishing an appropriate financial promotions procedure
Doing financial promotions right requires teamwork. The client-facing, sales and marketing teams need to know where the boundaries are, what they can talk about, what presentation slides should look like and what disclaimers should be used. There are pre-requisites for distribution of certain types of financial promotions to specific groups of recipients. These operational steps require clear and standardised procedures which are up-to-date and relevant to the business.
Documenting the review and approval of financial promotions
The Compliance Officer or their delegate must review the materials and identify and resolve any potential issues before the publication. They should be equipped with the right tools to evidence their work and maintain an audit trail for future reference.
How does Ocorian support your financial promotions?
Building a financial promotions framework
We can develop a financial promotions procedure with you based on your business, products, services and target market. We will make sure the procedures are adequate and proportionate to your firm’s risk profile.
Reviewing your financial promotions
We can review your financial promotions materials, from presentation slides to social media posts. We will provide guidance in plain language with specific action items for you to bring your financial promotion materials in line with regulatory expectations.
Periodic compliance monitoring
We can test your firm’s financial promotions compliance framework as an independent party. We will do this by testing samples of financial promotions against your firm’s internal policies and procedures and benchmarking them against the regulatory requirements. We can produce management reports for your senior management team to understand the quality of your financial promotions and the risks arising from your activities.
Why choose Ocorian to help with your financial promotions?
We pride ourselves on being flexible and responsive; we can tailor our services to what your business needs. We have subject matter experts who know the field, from high-risk investments to retail products. We know what your peers are doing, and we know what the regulator expects so we can give you confidence that your financial promotions meet regulatory expectations.
Frequently asked questions
The FCA requires financial promotions to be fair, clear and not misleading. Meeting these criteria takes judgement based on knowledge and experience, and financial promotions are consistently on the FCA's priority list.
Ocorian helps you build a financial promotions framework, reviews your materials (from presentation slides to social media posts) with plain-language guidance, and provides independent periodic monitoring of your financial promotions compliance.
Getting them wrong can lead to requests to remove the materials, a heightened risk profile with the regulator, or more severe consequences such as enforcement and penalties.
Yes. Ocorian reviews financial promotions and marketing materials against your policies and the regulatory requirements, with specific action items to bring them into line.
Let’s talk
Contact us and a member of our team will be in touch.
If you would like to speak to someone in regards to media please email: [email protected]
For career information and job applications please visit our careers page