MIFIDPRU investment firms can expect to face increased regulatory scrutinty as the Investment Firm Prudential Regime (IFPR) and ICARA regime matures, with mixed practices and standards of implementation in place across the industry.
In its 2023/24 Business Plan, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) stressed the importance of financial resilience in reducing the harm from firm failure. As ICARA is an important enabler to financial resilience, this is clearly a regulatory imperative, albeit with mixed standards of compliance in the industry, as evidenced by the two rounds of IFPR Implementation Observations published by the FCA in February and November 2023. This trend will likely only become more apparent as the FCA "ups the ante" on Supervisory Review and Evaluation (SREP) visits in the coming 12-24 months.
Our Regulatory Consulting and dedicated Wealth Management Regulatory Teams form part of our wider integrated legal services offering and our clients chose to work with them in the IFPR / ICARA space for the following reasons:
- Expert skills and deep-routed experience - The Team's skills and experience includes prudential regulatory experience at the UK regulator, including drafting of Consultation Papers, Policy Statements, formal Guidance, as well as assessing firms' prudential submissions.
- Commercially minded - The prudential space is one that requires significant judgement and interpretation of the published guidance to ensure that firms strike the right balance between proportionality and meeting regulatory expectations. Based on the Team's experience, they help their clients navigate this 'tightrope'.
- Industry leaders - The Team is plugged into various industry and regulatory networks, formal and informal, enabling them to remain 'on the pulse' of up to date best practice in respect of ICARA submissions. We also work closely with our market-leading Insolvency and Restructuring Team to ensure the operational credibility of wind-down planning assumptions.
