 Structured Products – Thematic (Regulatory) Review of Product development and governanceInvestors have questioned regulatory governance following the Special Administration of Reyker as a plan manager of Structured Products. As a business, we thought it may be of benefit if we provided to our investment clients a summary of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) thematic review, along with the Thematic review document itself. Click the link to open and read the FCA’s thematic review: https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/thematic-reviews/tr15-02.pdf The review was first published on 15/3/2015 and updated on 31/8/2016. The overview of the report hopefully provides a succinct breakdown of the key findings in a bullet point format, highlighting the changes that providers had to make as the sector evolves – aim to achieve clear investor transparency and invest outcomes. We trust you find the article of interest. TR15/2: Please note the review is directed at the profession rather than retail investors so we have broken down the key points that a retail investor would follow and want to understand – the below is an extract from the Thematic Review document: Our recent work in the structured products market has focused on better understanding consumer behaviour and the way that firms approach product development and governance. Structured products form an important component of the financial services industry. Products range from alternatives to cash deposits to complex investments referencing multiple financial assets or indices. This large and diverse market serves individual savers as well as sophisticated investors, corporates and financial institutions. Since publishing Finalised Guidance on structured products in 2012, we have continued to review how this market serves retail clients. Evidence from our ongoing interactions with firms suggested further work was necessary to examine how firms in the retail and wholesale markets were developing new structured products. This report contains the findings from our discovery work in this area. Who should read this? This report is relevant to all firms involved in any stage of the design, manufacture, packaging and distribution of structured products. Although the scope of our review did not include an assessment of sales of structured products to end customers, many of its conclusions will be relevant to firms involved in point of sale activities. Representatives of trade and consumer groups may also find its contents relevant. Our approachWe carried out our review through three work-streams:
What were our findings?Our consumer research highlights that retail customers generally struggle to understand the complex features common to many structured products and frequently overestimate the potential returns available from them. This can have a negative impact on the quality of their decision-making. The reports containing the detailed findings from our behavioural and qualitative research are available below: Structured Products – Qualitative research with consumers Our discovery work with retail and wholesale firms has identified weaknesses in the way some firms approach product design and governance for structured products. Our review suggests firms’ senior management must do more to put customers at the forefront of their approach to product governance. This includes:
Next stepsAll of the firms we assessed will be asked to explain how they will ensure the fair treatment of customers when bringing new structured products to the market. In addition, we have already asked some of the firms from our retail review to carry out further work to assess whether any of the issues identified may have affected existing products. Within the next two years, two forthcoming EU Directives – the Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products Regulation (PRIIPS) and the recast Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) – will also impose more detailed requirements on firms manufacturing and distributing structured products to retail customers. We will continue to monitor the structured product market to check whether firms are meeting our requirements. Should we identify further issues, we will consider what further regulatory action is necessary. All regulated firms involved in the structured product market – whether manufacturing, packaging and/or distributing – should carefully consider this report, alongside our Principles, rules and guidance. Firms’ senior management should satisfy themselves that they are meeting regulatory requirements and that their approaches support the delivery of good consumer outcomes. Best Price FS Action Following the commencement (and, in fact, prior to) the Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products Regulation (PRIIPS) and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MIFID II), we worked hard with issuers and plan managers in order that a combination on-boarding process; in other words a Due Diligence review could be undertaken which worked both ways. Provider to Distributor and Distributor (in this case Best Price FS) to Plan Manager where we asked searching questions so we could focus on the target market for plans; asking plan managers/issuers to review the presentation of products on our website, covering all aspects of matters from Risk Warnings to transparent cost disclosure, product documentation and Appropriateness (reviewing our Appropriate Assessment Questionnaire) so we can be confident that our distribution process meets the regulatory requirements fully. We have benefit from a solid working relationship which we feel is simplistic in nature – putting investor outcomes at the heart of the distribution vision – leading to how we regard a product manufacturer/plan manager as a Star Provider. The focus of our vision has been ‘making investments accessible and suitable to a wide investment audience’ which is why we write so much content, explaining about investment risk and how a product may meet an investor’s needs, at low cost. We would like to attract you to our blog page that covers a wide range of products and considerations driven to meet the attention of investors: https://www.bestpricefs.co.uk/blog/category/investments/ The recent failure of Reyker highlighted the benefit of following our ‘gut feeling’ in respect of our questioning of Reyker. As a firm, Reyker were evasive when questions were asked, which is why we did not list any issued products of Reyker – or provide advice in relation to the plans presented for distribution. Thankfully, none of our investment clients are caught up in any concern as we did not support Reyker’s distribution. We will be carrying out a similar process with providers/issuers in the New Year and reporting on the good, the bad and the ugly! What we can say is that we recognise that there are some providers more customer-end investor focused than others. We like ‘Oversight Committees’ that focus on defining a target market (audience) that considers product transparency design and publishes their position. Tempo have placed a huge amount of thought into the full process. Investec, as leaders in the product area for over a decade, are likewise very investor focused. Investec winning 36 industry awards since inception clarifies the views of the sector. For those who did not read the article in FT Adviser that aims to provide educational content to professional advisers, (can we suggest that you open and read the links within the blog?): https://www.bestpricefs.co.uk/blog/guide-to-structured-products/ As always, if you require advice, simply get in touch so we can help. If you wish to invest directly, simply click the link so you can read and understand (with appropriateness) about the plans we consider to be of quality. Compliments of the Season. Richard and the Best Price FS Team |