FCA suspends 10% drop-letter rule yet again

Chris Hamblin

2 October 2020

The form that the original 'no-action' announcement took was a 'Dear CEO' letter in which it notified managing directors of firms that provided portfolio management services or held retail client accounts that include "leveraged investments" that they were no longer required to inform investors when the values of their portfolios or "leveraged positions" fell by 10% or more compared with their value in their last periodic statements and for each subsequent 10% fall.

The letter referred CEOs to the conduct-of-business rule COBS 16.4.3, which states: "In cases where the portfolio of a client includes the proceeds of one or more unsettled transactions, the information in a statement provided under this section may be based either on the trade date or the settlement date, provided that the same basis is applied consistently to all such information in the statement."

This time there is no CEO letter, just an announcement on the FCA's website. For the next six months, the FCA will not take action for breach of COBS 16A.4.3 EU for services offered to retail investors as long as the firm in question has:

issued at least one notification in the current reporting period, telling retail clients that their portfolios or positions have dropped in value by at least 10%;
informed these clients that they may not receive similar notifications;
referred these clients to non-personalised communications, perhaps made available on public channels, that outline general updates about market conditions; and
reminded clients how to check the values of their portfolios and how to get in touch with it.

The FCA is keen to see that firms still pay due regards to the interests of their customers and treat them fairly (a requirement of "Principle for Business" 6, which is actually a very vague and much-abused rule), and pay due regard to the information needs of their clients, and communicate information to them in a way which is clear, fair and not misleading (Principle 7).

The regulator is worried about wealth management firms having to pay unnecessary expenses amid "potential market volatility arising from the continued spread of Covid-19 and the end of the Brexit transitional period...in these uncertain times."