Confirmed Industry Guidance
This page provides links to confirmed FSA Industry Guidance. By clicking on the links in the table you will be routed to the guidance providers web site, who own that particular piece of Industry Guidance
Our confirmation wording
The FSA has reviewed [this Industry Guidance] and has confirmed that it will take it into account when exercising its regulatory functions. [This Industry Guidance] is not mandatory and is not FSA Guidance. This FSA view cannot affect the rights of third parties.
The practical effect of FSA confirmation for firms' compliance
As now, a firm's defence against us is in essence the same whether they follow FSA guidance or FSA confirmed Industry Guidance –our rules say 'The FSA will not take action against a person for behaviour that it considers to be in line with guidance, other materials published by the FSA in support of the Handbook or FSA-confirmed Industry Guidance, which were current at the time of the behaviour in question.' (DEPP 6.2.1(4)G). Similarly, as Industry Guidance is not mandatory (and is one way, but not the only way, to comply with requirements), we do not presume that because firms are not complying with it they are not meeting our requirements.
However, where a breach has been established, Industry Guidance is potentially relevant to an enforcement case. The ways in which we may seek to use Industry Guidance in an enforcement context are similar to those in which we may use FSA Guidance or supporting materials. As set out in Chapter 2 of the new Enforcement Guide, these include to:
- help assess whether it could reasonably have been understood or predicted at the time that the conduct in question fell below the standards required by the Principles.
- explain the regulatory context.
- inform a view of the overall seriousness of the breaches e.g. we could decide that the breach warranted a higher penalty in circumstances where the FSA had written to chief executives in that sector to reiterate the importance of ensuring a particular aspect of its business complied with relevant regulatory standards.
- inform the consideration of a firm's defence that we were judging the firm on the basis of retrospective standards; and
- be considered as part of expert or supervisory statements in relation to the relevant standards at the time.
- However, we are conscious that our use of Industry Guidance in this context should not create a second tier of regulation and that guidance providers are not quasi-regulators. We will take the specific status of FSA confirmation into account when we make judgements about the relevance of Industry Guidance in enforcement cases.
Questions on individual pieces of guidance
Should you have a question on a particular piece of Industry Guidance, please contact the guidance provider directly. The guidance Provider for each piece can be established by clicking on the relevant piece of guidance.
The following table lists Industry Guidance that has received FSA Confirmation.
| Guidance title | Expiry Date | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | BBA/BSA/Payments Council Guidance on the Banking Conduct of Business sourcebook | 4 December 2010 |
| 2. | MIFID Connect Outsourcing | 16 May 2010 |
| 3. | MiFID Connect Suitability and Appropriateness | 10 August 2010 |
| 4. | MiFID Connect Investment Research | 20 August 2010 |
| 5. | AIC guidance on invesment policies | 16 July 2011 |
| 6. | Transparency, disclosure and conflicts of interest in the commercial insurance market | 23 March 2012 |
| 7. | IMA guidance on paperless renunciation / transfer of units / shares in authorised funds | 9 April 2012 |
