Wealth Managers and Financial Advisers and change of control requests 2017-2021 - March 2022

FOI Release Date of Release:

Reference Case Number: FOI9022

Freedom of Information: Right to know request:

Please only include data for Wealth Managers and Financial Advisers.

  1. Could you confirm the number of "change of control requests" (section 178 notices) received by month from Jan 2017 to Dec 2021, or as far back as you hold records if less than this time period?
  2. Please could you also confirm the average time taken to respond to such requests? If this is not possible, please provide the time, in days, from "received" to "closed" or the dates "received" and "closed".
  3. Please can you provide details of how many are rejected and how many are approved, by month, from Jan 2017 to Dec 2021, or as far back as you hold records if less than this time period?

FCA response:

Before considering our response, please note the following:

In order to meet your specification of ‘Wealth Managers and Financial Advisers’, figures throughout are provided where the target firm impacted by a transaction has as its primary portfolio allocation ‘Wealth Management’ or ‘Advisers and Intermediaries’.  In addition, please note the following important factors:

  • Firms may have both primary and secondary portfolio allocations; only the primary portfolio allocation is considered here.
  • The primary portfolio allocation used is that at the date the data was extracted (14 February 2022) and not necessarily at the date that the change in control (CIC) case occurred.  In other words, firms that are now in the two relevant portfolios may have been in different portfolios at the time of the CIC.
  • Where firms are no longer authorised, the primary portfolio allocation used is that at the date that the firm ceased to be authorised.  That may not be the same as at the time of the change in control case.