News: Obtaining a financial license in Great Britain

If you decide to become a forex broker, then of course you will need to obtain a license to carry out brokerage activities.

We recommend that you obtain the FCA brokerage license in the UK, as it is one of the most authoritative in the world along with the financial licenses of the NFA and the CFTC (USA).

Our specialists have already obtained many FCA licenses for our clients, and will gladly help you in obtaining this license.

The regulator of financial activity in the UK is the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

This regulator is currently the most reliable of all previously established in the UK to control financial structures, investment companies and brokers. The FCA was founded in 2013 on the basis of the FSA (Financial Services Authority) regulator, which was qualitatively modified after it could not prevent fraud with Libor rate and not only, which caused a lot of losses for many investors.

The new regulator - FCA - is already working in the conditions of updated legislation, which is primarily designed for the interests of investors and financial structures in England.

The following brokerage companies obtained the license of the FCA:

FOREX.com; Activ Trades; FIBO Group; ICM Brokers; Saxo Bank; FXCM; OANDA; GFT.

All of them occupy leading positions in the top league of the brokers rating and achieved high results in the financial services market.

Let’s consider the steps in the procedure for obtaining the FCA license in the UK below.

• Registration of the company;

The first thing that needs to be done is to register a company in the UK, in which name, in fact, a license will be obtained.

A suitable form of company registration for financial activities is LTD company.

Requirements for the establishment of the company:

• one founder is enough to register;
• there are no requirements to the founder's residence;
• one director is sufficient to register; but at the time of filing and throughout the period of consideration of documents by the regulator, the director must be present in the territory of the United Kingdom and this must be confirmed;
• regardless of residence, only an individual can be appointed as a director;
• there is no need to hire a secretary;
• to obtain a license, it is obligatory (in addition to the director) to ensure that the Compliance Officer is accepted for permanent work, and it is a person who directly interacts with the regulator in matters of the company's activities and compliance with the current legislation in the sphere of financial activities that controls compliance with all legal requirements, changes;
• amount of the company's authorized capital will depend on the following factors:

€ 125 000 - if the company is engaged in brokerage activities; in this case the company has the right to bear own risks; the company will be allowed to attract money from clients (both retail and professional) for the activity and to monitor these funds;

€ 730 000 - if the company plans to trade with own book, influence the market, conduct transactions with regard to retail clients, professional clients, counterparties and entitles to attract and control the client's funds, the company is ready to buy and sell securities at a bargain price.

The foregoing authorized capital must be fully contributed to the company's account (paid) at the time of filing documents to obtain a license to the regulator, and can not be used in the company's activities.

1. Name of the company.

The name or its composition should not contain:

• already existing names (or similar to them);
• words that can be regarded as rude, abusive or harmful to public order in the country;
• names that may relate (or contain a hint) to the authorities, the royal family;
• names that indicate activities that require a license (trust company, insurance company, bank, etc.).

In addition, the name of the company registered by you will be protected from the appearance of an enterprise with a similar name.

Terms of company registration: 3-4 days.

2. Opening a bank account of the company.

A bank account can be opened in any European jurisdiction, but it is recommended for a high probability of obtaining a license to open an account with one of the banks in the UK.

Personal presence of the director in the UK banks, as a rule, is mandatory for opening an account.

Submission of documents to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the regulator's requirements for obtaining a license

The main legislative acts governing financial (including forex) activities in the UK are:

1. 1.Licensing Act (2003).
2. 2.Financial Services Act (2012).

Preparation of the package of documents by our specialists for submission to the Financial Conduct Authority for consideration will take 3-4 weeks.

• it will be necessary to fill out the Regulator's Basic Form for obtaining a license;
• it will be necessary to fill out the Supplementary Complex Form;
• it will be necessary to fill in the questionnaire;
• it will be necessary to fill out the Form A - Application, which specifies the data on the director and the Compliance Officer, for which approval is required by the regulator;

Within the framework of this proposal, our specialists undertake to provide/prepare:

• a document confirming compliance with legislation in the field of combating money-laundering by the company;
• a document confirming the company's compliance with the monitoring program;
• business plan;
• organization structure of the company;
• three-year report on cash flows;
• document on the process of internal assessment of the company's sufficient capital.

Regulator's requirements for obtaining a license

One of the decisive factors in obtaining a financial license is the confirmation of the experience of the executive director of the company to the regulator: the director must confirm to the regulator his skills and experience in this activity, confirm his qualification, he also will need to confirm to the regulator his full understanding of the financial market within which the company plans to work.

Also, the director can be a natural person who is a citizen of any country, but at the time of submitting documents to the regulator and considering them, the director must necessarily be in the territory of the United Kingdom.

Also, the director will have to live in the UK for the entire period of the company's work, because the regulator periodically checks the fact of doing business in the UK. And if it turns out that in fact business is conducted from another jurisdiction, then the company can be deprived of a license.

The requirement for availability of an actual office in the UK.

Also mandatory to comply with the regulator's requirement is the presence of an actual office in the UK, and it can possibly be absolutely minimal in area.

It is enough that the director and other employees can normally be and work in it.

Also, it is mandatory to have Internet and telephone communication in the UK code in the office.

Guarantees of obtaining a license

As such, there are no guarantees for obtaining a license, but if all the regulator's requirements are met, then the possibility of obtaining a license will be maximum.

Also, the probability of obtaining a license will depend on the transparency and reliability of the information provided to the regulator.

Terms of obtaining a license 

According to the law, the period for obtaining a license from the moment of filing a package of documents to the regulator is 1 year, but in practice this period is shorter (about 8 months).

As for the purchase of White Label, this option in the UK is currently unavailable, as there are serious problems with the procedure for re-registering the company.

By contacting Law&Trust International for maintaining in obtaining the FCA license in the UK, you will save time and get a high-quality result as soon as possible. We will be happy to assist you!