On January 10, 2018, the Financial Conduct Authority published a "Dear CEO" letter that was sent to firms that offer contracts for difference products to retail customers on either an advisory or discretionary portfolio management basis (including pursuant to limited power of attorney).
The "Dear CEO" letter follows a review conducted by the FCA which assessed internal processes, policies, controls and oversight arrangements at a sample of 19 providers and 15 distributors of CFD products to retail customers. The "Dear CEO" letter identifies a number of areas of concern: target market identification and alignment of the target market to the characteristics of the product; communication, oversight and challenge; the process for taking on new distributors; management of conflicts of interest; the use of management information and key performance indicators; client categorization; and remuneration arrangements.
The FCA considers that there is a high risk that firms across the sector are not meeting its rules and expectations when providing and distributing CFDs and that consumers are likely to experience poor outcomes unless these poor practices are addressed. The letter highlights the need for firms overall to improve a number of oversight and control arrangements to reach the standard required by FCA rules and guidance. The FCA will conduct further work on CFDs and firms may be asked to take part in a follow-up review to assess how they have responded to the feedback in the Dear CEO letter. The FCA will also be assessing firms' compliance with the new Product Intervention and Product Governance sourcebook, which came into effect on January 3, 2018, implementing as rules the product governance requirements of the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive.
The 'Dear CEO' letter is available at: https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/correspondence/dear-ceo-letter-cfd-review-findings.pdf.
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