Financial Services and Markets Act 2000

Part I Part IV Permission

Legal status

1 (1) If the regulated activity concerned is the effecting or carrying out of contracts of insurance the authorised person must be a body corporate, a registered friendly society or a member of Lloyd's.

(2) If the person concerned appears to the Authority to be seeking to carry on, or to be carrying on, a regulated activity constituting accepting deposits, it must be—

(a) a body corporate; or

(b) a partnership.

Location of offices

2 (1) If the person concerned is a body corporate constituted under the law of any part of the United Kingdom—

(a) its head office, and

(b) if it has a registered office, that office,

must be in the United Kingdom.

(2) If the person concerned has its head office in the United Kingdom but is not a body corporate, it must carry on business in the United Kingdom.

Close links

3 (1) If the person concerned (“A”) has close links with another person (“CL”) the Authority must be satisfied—

(a) that those links are not likely to prevent the Authority’s effective supervision of A; and

(b) if it appears to the Authority that CL is subject to the laws, regulations or administrative provisions of a territory which is not an EEA State (“the foreign provisions”), that neither the foreign provisions, nor any deficiency in their enforcement, would prevent the Authority’s effective supervision of A.

(2) A has close links with CL if—

(a) CL is a parent undertaking of A;

(b) CL is a subsidiary undertaking of A;

(c) CL is a parent undertaking of a subsidiary undertaking of A;

(d) CL is a subsidiary undertaking of a parent undertaking of A;

(e) CL owns or controls 20% or more of the voting rights or capital of A; or

(f) A owns or controls 20% or more of the voting rights or capital of CL.

(3) “Subsidiary undertaking” includes all the instances mentioned in Article 1(1) and (2) of the Seventh Company Law Directive in which an entity may be a subsidiary of an undertaking.

Adequate resources

4 (1) The resources of the person concerned must, in the opinion of the Authority, be adequate in relation to the regulated activities that he seeks to carry on, or carries on.

(2) In reaching that opinion, the Authority may—

(a) take into account the person’s membership of a group and any effect which that membership may have; and

(b) have regard to—

(i) the provision he makes and, if he is a member of a group, which other members of the group make in respect of liabilities (including contingent and future liabilities); and

(ii) the means by which he manages and, if he is a member of a group, which other members of the group manage the incidence of risk in connection with his business.

Suitability

5 The person concerned must satisfy the Authority that he is a fit and proper person having regard to all the circumstances, including—

(a) his connection with any person;

(b) the nature of any regulated activity that he carries on or seeks to carry on; and

(c) the need to ensure that his affairs are conducted soundly and prudently.