Wholesale brokers

Find out what permissions you'll need to apply to us for authorisation, how much you'll need to pay and what we expect to see in your application.

Wholesale brokers can:

  • recommend particular investments to an investor
  • carry out deals on behalf of their customers

but the decision to invest must be made by the customer.

Wholesale brokers can either:

  • arrange for investments into or by a third party, or
  • provide advice on investments and arrange for investments (advisers/arrangers)

In either instance you should consider whether or not you're providing regulated advice.

Before applying to us for authorisation you need to read this page, our page for all wholesale markets firm applicants and our how to apply page for all firms.

Permissions you'll need

Typically, these are the permissions required:

  • advising on investments
  • arranging deals in investments
  • agreeing to carry on regulated activities
  • making arrangements with a view to transactions in investments

Permissions sometimes required:

  • dealing in investments as an agent

For full details, refer to our table of permissions you might need and the terms being used.​​​​

Application fee

Your fee falls into pricing category 4.

Find out more about your application fee, including how to pay.

Prudential requirements

If you're a MiFID investment firm you'll:

  • be subject to the MIFIDPRU requirements
  • probably be a small non-interconnected firm and the Own Funds Requirement will be the higher of a Permanent Minimum Requirement (PMR) of £75,000 or a Fixed Overhead Requirement

If you're a non-MiFID arranger also giving advice (eg an Article 3 MiFID exempt firm subject to IPRU-INV 3):

  • your firm's financial resource requirement is that you maintain financial resources in excess of the financial resources requirement as calculated in IPRU (INV) 3.61 and 3.70
You should satisfy yourself that any advising that your firm undertakes is classed as a personal recommendation. Read more about this in our Handbook.

What to include

Before submitting your application through our Connect system, make sure you've prepared:

: Information changed Minor amendment to the application fee section