FCA authorisation for investment business in the United Kingdom

About This Company

This UK matched principal broker, an FCA-authorised investment firm (MIFIDPRU authorisation under Part 4A FSMA), is for sale. The seller gives its incorporation as between 6 and 9 years ago, while also saying the brokerage house was built in 2012. Its authorisation is limited: matched principal broking, with interests in or entitlements to investments in both categories. Permitted activities are advising on investments, excluding advice on moving or opting out of pensions, and arranging or bringing about transactions in them. Clients may be professional, retail or eligible market counterparties. A MiFID service passport appears in the seller's list. Investment types are wide-ranging: shares, units, warrants, debentures, certificates representing securities, government and public securities, spread bets, rolling spot forex contracts, commodity futures and options, futures and options outside the commodity field, and CFDs (leaving out spread bets, rolling spot forex and binary bets). Per the seller, the permissions in practice are warrants, shares, FX, CFDs, options and futures, and advisory permissions also exist. The company currently has no clients and no supplier contracts, following restructuring. Banking is in place, including segregated facilities. Earlier, it executed exchange-traded derivatives across financial, oil, metal and other commodity markets, and offered retail FX alongside spread bets and CFDs. Buyers who show firm interest get the operating costs. Any buyer, entity or beneficial owner, needs proof of funds and KYC. According to the seller, passporting to Europe is still in place, whereas the Atlas treats this authorisation as domestic with no passport, so the point is confirmed before a quote. FCA approval is needed before anyone acquires or increases control, and doing so without it is a criminal offence under FSMA 2000 Section 191F. By comparison, a new application has a decision period of 6 months from a complete filing, or 12 months from an incomplete one.