Understanding the FCA's Own Funds Requirements

Webinar specifically for Payment Services and e-money firms

All Authorised Payment Institutions (APIs), Small Electronic Money Institutions (SEMIs) and Authorised Electronic Money Institutions (AEMIs) must meet the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA's) own fund requirements at all times. Cosegic identified a common misunderstanding that we believe is leading to a high proportion of payments and e-money firms unknowingly failing to meet the FCA's expectations.

To help firms in the sector and provide clarity on the FCA's expectations, Cosegic hosted a well-attended webinar on 14th September 2021. As well as helping firms understand the requirements, the webinar also outlined 10 of the most common mistakes firms are making when calculating their own funds and informed attendees on how best to avoid them. Registrants also benefitted from receiving a free factsheet - 'Key Questions to Answer Before Calculating Your Own Funds' which could be used to analyse their current position and identify any gaps in the management of their own funds. A copy of this factsheet is also available with our webinar recording.  

Access Recording and Download Factsheet

For more information on the outcomes of the webinar, we have put together a press release that you can read and download from our website.

Speakers

The webinar was be hosted by three of our leading compliance experts, James Borley, John Burns, and Harpartap Singh:

• James Borley is the Client Director and head of our Payment Services Practice. He is a highly qualified financial services expert and an ex-regulator, having spent over 22 years at the FCA.

• John Burns is the Technical Director within our Payment Services Practice. He is one of the UK’s foremost compliance experts in payment services and previous Technical Specialist on Payments at the FCA.

• Harpartap Singh is the Managing Director of our Prudential Practice. He became a Chartered Accountant and Prudential Consultant in the early 2000s and has since gained an enviable reputation for his experience and advice.

What the webinar covered

• What counts as own funds?

• When can you include retained profits?

• What should you do with losses?

• What are your own funds requirements?

• How do you evaluate your current situation?

• Q&A

Who is this webinar for

This webinar is recommended to all APIs, SEMIs and AEMIs and will be specifically beneficial to directors, senior managers, and risk & compliance executives.

Why are we talking about this? 

Following a supervisory engagement with the sector in 2020, the FCA noted a number of shortcomings in how firms had calculated their own funds requirement and that many had inadequate governance and controls to manage prudential risk. An announcement was made in the 'Dear CEO' letter 'Portfolio strategy letter for payment services firms and e-money issuers', issued in July 2020, and firms were reminded to take action in order to meet the requirements. Cosegic identified that despite this notification, many firms are still falling short of the requirements and misunderstanding exactly what the FCA is looking for.

To quote the FCA, "firms must ensure they have adequate financial resources. This means meeting own funds requirements at all times, having sufficient regulatory capital to be able to incur losses while remaining solvent, or to fail in an orderly way. It also means having a sufficient quantity and quality of liquid assets to be able to pay debts and meet obligations as they fall due".

Our webinar interprets and clearly outlines the FCA requirements so that firms can evaluate their own position.

Access Recording and Download Factsheet