Organisations & Regulations

Before starting CeMAP, I was warned about ‘Module 1’. Everyone said it was dry, dense, and full of regulation. They were right.

When I first joined the industry, the only time I had come across the word compliance and supervision was when I was working for an accountancy firm designing and building their website.

So when I started as a Digital Marketing Exec in financial services and I came across these departments, it didn’t make much sense to me at all.

Over the past four years of working in the financial services sector and with aid of the CeMAP course. I have started to finally piece the puzzle together, but I’ll keep that for another post.

Tonight, I want to outline some of the various organisations that make-up the financial services sector. Some we will all know of, some not so.

Key organisations

Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)

Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)

The safety net for the consumer, if it all goes wrong. We need to be aware of them, as adding their logo to a website could well be a compliance requirement.

Financial Conduct Authority

The watchdog. As marketers, the FCA are the ones that write the rules on Financial Promotions that guides and dictates to us what we can can’t say in an ad.

Prudential Regulation Authority

Financial Policy Committee

Monetary Policy Committee

The organisation responsible for setting the UK’s interest rates to meet the governments 2% inflation rate target.

Bank of England

Responsible for the protection and enhancement of the UK financial system and has prudential regulation of large size financial organisations,

Money and Pension Service

International Monetary Fund

Prudential Regulation Committee

Information Commissioner’s Office

The data protector, the organisation that is responsible for GDPR and the Data Protection Act. It’s these guys that you’ll need to contact if there is ever a serious data breach.

Payment Services Regulator

Competition and Markets Authority

Ensuring markets and organisations are operating fairly. Competition in our market place is a good thing, the Competition and Markets Authority promotes a competitive market and takes action to prevent ant-competition behaviour.

The deeper I go into the world of financial services, the more I’m seeing and reading of new organisations, diving deeper into their roles and finding a whole new world.

My only interest, many moons ago, was the Bank of England and what they were doing with the interest rate. Today that interest is even more heighten and has a stronger degree of understanding of what a rise and fall means.

Adjustment to the interest rate affects a lot more than just our mortgages and credit cards. It has an impact across the entire economy and can help bring down inflation, as we are slowly seeing.

Alongside these key organisations, I have also found myself having to read, dive and learn more about the various legislation, regulation and rules that make up the financial services sector.

Here are just a few of the legislations I’ve written down and been looking at this week:

Key pieces of regulation:

Financial Guidance & Claims Act 2018

Financial Services & Markets Act 2000

Financial Services Act 2012

The Bank of England & Financial Services Act 2016

EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018

Financial Services Act 2021 (April)

Building Societies Act 1980

Banking Act 1987

Financial Services Act 1986

Financial Services & Markets Act 2023

This amount of legislation has helped answer a question I had when I first decided I wanted to study for my CeMAP.

Why aren’t more marketers talking about this regulation? The answer, I think is fear. In financial services, an incorrect word or a misplaced comma isn’t just a typo, it’s could be seen as a regulatory breach.

Your post on social media could be seen as a financial promotion, and if deemed as one, you may find the regulator asking your Principal and you, some rather uncomfortable questions.

Yet, it is essential, for financial advisers to talk about their work, but it should be done in a compliant way.

So ensure you include your regulatory disclaimers where needed, don’t be misleading, don’t use technical or industry language and think of the outcomes you want to achieve for the recipient.

If in doubt get it approved by a member of your compliance team.

I’m in the process of becoming a CeMAP qualified marketer, join me on the journey by subscribing to the newsletter below: