PIMFA WEEKLY BULLETIN
New PIMFA Member-only Guide – Taskforce for Climate Related Financial Disclosures
Task Force for Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) already applies to large firms and comes into force for firms with less than £50bn AUM and more than £5bn on 30 June this year.
Working in conjunction with Alpha FMC, a specialist management consultancy for the Wealth and Asset Management industries, PIMFA has developed a TCFD guide to support Wealth Managers with publishing their TCFD reports for the first time this year or for those looking to improve their existing reporting for the future.
The guide contains information on:
• Reporting deadlines and firm requirements
• What must be reported for entity-level and product-level reporting
• Examples of publicly available reports that exceeded expectations for both entity and product-level reporting
• Areas to consider for first-time report development
• A checklist for success – steps firms can take to prepare for reporting
Ensure you are up to date – login and read the guide here
PIMFA launches Benchmark Survey in partnership with NextWealth
PIMFA, in partnership with NextWealth and the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, has launched its Financial Advice Business Benchmarks report. The Financial Advice Business Benchmarks report is an annual market research report which can help firms benchmark their own proposition and stature. The report provides measurement or benchmarking areas such as client growth, advice tech, advice charges and trends.
Last year's report can be accessed here
Firms can access the survey for input into this year’s report here.
Whilst we appreciate that feeding into this survey takes some time, this can be completed over multiple sittings and represents an excellent opportunity for firms to both feed into a broader picture of industry which we use as part of our ongoing advocacy efforts, as well as provide a firm with a picture of where they are relative to the rest of the market.
Please contact Simon Harrington should you have further queries.
New PIMFA Guest Blog - Building the all-weather portfolio for family offices
Over the past decade, the world has undergone substantial transformations, including macroeconomic volatility, evolving geopolitical risk, technological change, resource supply chain disruption, climate, and nature.
Here, Sebastian Maciocia, Director of Wealth Management at Mercer, discusses how wealth managers can build portfolio resilience and position investment strategies to deliver through all weathers.
Read the blog here.
The Q3 2024 PIMFA Asset Allocation Survey CLOSES FRI 5 JULY at 5pm
Complete this quarter's survey(s), and you can:
• Receive a complimentary, 40-page report, showing how the strategic asset allocations of your firm’s model portfolios compare to the peer average.
• Ensure the index weight methodologies for the MSCI PIMFA Private Investor and Equity Risk Index Series remain relevant benchmarks for the UK wealth management sector.
Registered firms, simply click here to login and submit your firm's quarterly strategic asset allocations using our new and improved dashboard.
We value and encourage active participation from our full member firms, email indices@pimfa.co.uk now for more information/sign-up.
For up to date guidance and useful resources, check out the PIMFA Financial Crime Microsite
Check out the Microsite
Financial Conduct Authority - Consumer Duty updates
Insurance multi-firm review of outcomes monitoring
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published key findings from their review of larger insurance firms’ approaches to outcomes monitoring under the Duty.
The FCA advise the review findings represent a new expectation of firms and as such the FCA have included examples of good and poor practice which may be useful for other sectors as firms finalise their first annual board report.
Annual board reports
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has updated information for firms to include more information on the regulator’s expectations and requirements on annual board reports
The FCA state that from July they will review a broad sample of reports and will publish insights to help drive good practice. Firms are reminded they are expected to provide the board report if asked.
Financial Conduct Authority webinar - Consumer Duty: one year on
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are livestreaming an event on 31 July 2024 that will focus on the impact of the Duty, examples of good practice and areas for improvement, and the regulator’s priorities for the year ahead. Speakers will include:
• Sheldon Mills: Executive Director, Consumers and Competition, FCA
• Graeme Reynolds: Director of Competition, FCA
• Abby Thomas: Chief Executive and Chief Ombudsman, Financial Ombudsman Service
Attendees are invited to submit questions during the event and also at registration so as to inform questions for the proposed panel discussion.
Members can register for the livestreamed event here.
Financial Conduct Authority: Overseas appointed representatives
Based on feedback to the consultation on improving the appointed representatives regime (PDF) the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published their expectations and practical considerations for principal firms with overseas appointed representatives, noting the expectation of monitoring and oversight to account for any challenges that may arise (e.g. differences in legal, accounting and regulatory requirements for each jurisdiction, geographical distance and cultural and language differences).
Members can access the information here
Financial Conduct Authority speech - Teamwork: A Smart way to tackle financial crime
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published a speech by Steve Smart (joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight).
Key points:
• The FCA is as much a law enforcement agency as a regulator and works to pre-empt the criminal use of new technology such as AI and deep fakes.
• Collaboration and teamwork are key (both internally and externally), with the FCA working with regulated firms to ensure their systems and controls keep a step ahead of criminals seeking to exploit them.
• Fraud still accounts for nearly 40% of national crime, with the regulator noting that fraud typologies continue to evolve.
• The aim of preventing harm through awareness was also noted (ScamSmart and Warning List), alongside working with big tech platforms such as Google, Bing and Meta to tackle illegal financial promotions and scam adverts.
• Authorisations are seen as key to high standards and as another tool of prevention for the regulator.
• The FCA strongly encourage firms and cross-sector partners to participate in data sharing initiatives.
• The FCA will publish an update on non-financial misconduct in the autumn (based on data received from over 1,000 firms in wholesale and insurance markets about their experiences of non-financial misconduct).
Read the full speech here
