Financial promotions
Under section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA), in the course of business an unauthorised firm must not communicate an invitation or inducement to engage in investment activities (referred to from now on as a financial promotion) unless either:
- the content of the financial promotion has been approved by an authorised person; or
- the financial promotion is exempt from s21 of FSMA, by being within the scope of an exemption in the FSMA (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the Financial Promotion Order).
One consequence of this is that if a professional firm wishes to approve a financial promotion (of its own or of another firm) that no Financial Promotion Order exemption applies to, then the professional firm will need to be authorised by us. This is the case even though approving financial promotions is not a regulated activity.
A firm cannot apply to the FSA purely for the purpose of approving financial promotions – it must also carry on regulated activities. Firms in this position should consider whether they already carry on exempt regulated activities under the supervision and regulation of their designated professional body (see the section on exempt professional firms). These activities would ultimately be reflected in the scope of permission we grant.
If all of a firm's regulated activities are limited to non-mainstream regulated activity then the firm is only allocated to the A13 fee block.