• Doing business with the FSA
  • UK Listing Authority
    • Sponsors
      • Sponsor supervision team

Sponsor Supervision is a team of eight people which deals with regulatory matters under the Listing Rules affecting sponsor firms.

About the Sponsor Supervision Team

The team performs annual desktop reviews of existing sponsor firms to ensure compliance with the eligibility requirements; regularly visits all sponsor firms to review their compliance with continuing obligations relating to independence and staff supervision; and makes ad hoc visits when required to investigate potential or suspected breaches of the Listing Rules.

We also give advice on how to interpret and apply Chapter 8 of the Listing Rules.

Sponsor Supervision: how the team interacts with the FSA

The Sponsor Supervision team forms part of the Listing Transactions Department and sits within the Markets Division. As part of the UK Listing Authority, the Sponsor Supervision Team works closely with colleagues that are pre-vetting transactions, as well as liaising with firm supervisors, Market Monitoring and the Enforcement Division.

Relationship Management

Each sponsor firm is allocated a relationship manager within the team, who acts as the sponsor's point of contact for all matters or queries relating to Chapter 8 of the Listing Rules. The function of sponsor supervision relationship managers is separate from that of the relationship managers within the FSA who supervise the firm as an authorised entity.

If you have any queries on sponsor supervision please contact us on + 44 (0)20 7066 8333 and select option 5.

 

UKLA Sponsor Forum

Introduction

The UKLA Sponsor Forum (the ‘Forum’) is an informal external focus group that meets approximately three times a year. The Forum's remit is to enable advisers to enter into a direct dialogue with the UKLA on technical aspects of the Listing Rules. Forum meetings are chaired by Marc Teasdale, Head of the UKLA's Listing Transactions Department, and its membership consists of a varying selection of sponsors, lawyers and accounting firms who advise listed companies on a day-to-day basis. Representatives from the UKLA, Market Monitoring and Markets Policy also attend and contribute to the meetings as appropriate.

Our Remit

Since December 2004, after a separate Forum for specialist securities was established and consistent with the UKLA's newly-enhanced Sponsor Supervision activities, the Forum has concentrated its focus on equity securities issues and strengthening its relationship with its registered sponsor firms. Despite the change, it is not our intention to provide general guidance or individual guidance to sponsors or other advisers on specific issues at Forum meetings.

Papers/Agenda items

The agenda for the meeting is driven by the attendees and we generally ask for suggestions for agenda topics at each meeting but we also invite sponsor firms to contact us directly with suggestions. If there is a need, we are happy to dedicate an entire meeting to key topics.

Membership

To ensure that market users have equal opportunities to attend the Forum, we invite all sponsor firms and other relevant equity adviser firms (i.e. lawyers and accountants) to attend the meetings. As places are limited, the first 20 firms to respond to our email invitation attend the meeting. Only one person from each firm may attend. If you wish to be included in the invitation email, please send your name, email address, name of firm and title to Saleem Wadee. As the meetings are consistently oversubscribed, any firm that accepts our invitation but fails to attend will not be selected for the next meeting.