Further help
COBS query?
Small firms should continue to use the Firm Contact Centre as their first point of contact.
Further help and information on the Conduct of Business Sourcebook.
The material produced here does not constitute individual or general FSA guidance. Instead, we aim to provide helpful explanations to firms about particular questions of interpretation. The material is necessarily high-level, so firms seeking further clarification of our requirements in particular circumstances may need to seek individual guidance in accordance with our rules in SUP 9.
Transition map from COB to COBS
In PS07/6 (at Annex 2), we published a transition map showing the transition of the rules from COB to COBS.
Transition map [PDF]
Key rules for retail markets – understand the basics
To help senior management unfamiliar with the new sourcebook to understand the basics of COBS and its key rules for retail markets, we have published a 'key rules' guide. The aim of the guide is to provide a useful navigational tool for readers, although it does not include everything readers need to know about the requirements in COBS (see the rest of this web page for further information). The guide can be printed off in A5.
‘Key Rules’ for retail markets [PDF] - September 2007
Small firms
One of the main objectives for the COB sourcebook is to make it easier to understand and comply with, and one main area for change that we identified was to ease the regulatory burden for small firms.
The new COBS affects small firms (those firms that have been given the Firm Contact Centre as their FSA point of contact) doing investment business. The impact of the changes that COBS brings will depend on the nature of a firm's business. Nevertheless, we have designed most of the proposed changes to identify the underlying principles that drive conduct of business, and give firms greater flexibility in how they comply with them.
We recommend that firms check these pages as well as the small firms section of our website regularly for related updates.
On 24 August 2007, we published our Guide to the new conduct of business sourcebook for small firms [PDF].
