Increased supervision and contact with Wholesale Small Firms
The population of Wholesale Small Firms includes hedge fund managers, investment managers, private equity firms, corporate finance firms and brokers.
We will improve our communication with firms and build on the successful first conference held specifically for Wholesale Small Firms in September 2007. We will tailor our communications and feedback to the above groups of firms and work closer with the relevant relationship management teams and other areas of the FSA to focus on the risks faced by those firms.
During 2008/09 we will look to have some form of contact with nearly all the 2,500 Wholesale Small Firms either through mini visits, inclusion in thematic work, or during the course of dealing with queries raised through our Firm Contact Centre and analysis of firms' regulatory returns.
This contact is designed to gain an insight into the approach of a firm's management and to assess the firm’s overall compliance. The visits conducted so far have been well received by the firms involved. The results of the assessments will help inform our risk-profiling of individual firms, so we can more effectively target resources at those firms who pose the biggest risk to our objectives.
We want to work in partnership with firms who are trying to do the right thing. At the same time, we will identify and take action against those firms that are not engaging with us and are not compliant.
Our aim is to create an environment for firms where understanding of compliance and good practice standards is widespread and firms are fully engaged in meeting those standards.