This is the new version of the new FCA Handbook website. Help us improve it by giving your feedback.
For a common platform firm:
(1)
[deleted]
(2)
the rules and guidance apply as set out in the table below:
| Subject | Applicable rule or guidance |
|---|---|
| General requirements | SYSC 9.1.1AR, SYSC 9.1.1BR, SYSC 9.1.2-AR |
| Specific requirements for insurance distribution | SYSC 9.1.2AR, SYSC 9.1.2CR |
| Guidance on record-keeping | SYSC 9.1.2BG,SYSC 9.1.4G, SYSC 9.1.5G, SYSC 9.1.6G, SYSC 9.1.6AG |
For a MiFID optional exemption firm and a third country firm:
(1)
the rules and guidance in this chapter apply to them as if they were rules or as guidance in accordance with SYSC 1 Annex 1 3.2CR(1).
(2)
[deleted]
A firm (other than a common platform firm) must arrange for orderly records to be kept of its business and internal organisation, including all services and transactions undertaken by it, which must be sufficient to enable the FCA to monitor the firm's compliance with the requirements under the regulatory system, and in particular to ascertain that the firm has complied with all obligations with respect to clients.
[Note: article 12(1)(a) of the UCITS Directive and article 4(1)(e) of the UCITS implementing Directive]
A common platform firm must arrange for records to be kept of all services, activities and transactions undertaken by it.
The records in (1) must be sufficient to enable the FCA to fulfil its supervisory tasks and to perform the enforcement actions under the regulatory system including MiFID, MiFIR and the Market Abuse Regulation, and in particular to ascertain that the common platform firm has complied with all obligations including those with respect to clients or potential clients and to the integrity of the market.
[Note: article 16(6) of MiFID]
A common platform firm must:
(1) at least keep the records in relation to organisational requirements as set out in the table below:
| Organisational requirements | |
| Type of record | Summary of content |
| The firm's business and internal organisation | Records as provided for under SYSC 4.1.1-AR(1)(d) |
| Compliance reports | Each compliance report to management body |
| Conflict of Interest record | Records as provided for under SYSC 10.1.6R and SYSC 10.1.6AAR |
| Risk management reports | Each risk management report to senior management |
| Internal audit reports | Each internal audit report to senior management |
| Records of personal transactions | Records as provided for under COBS 11.7A.5R(5)(c) |
(2) keep written records of any policies and procedures it is required to maintain to comply with its obligations under the UK law on markets in financial instruments and the UK law on market abuse.
A common platform firm must retain all records kept by it under this chapter in relation to its MiFID business for a period of at least five years.
In relation to its MiFID business, a common platform firm must retain records in a medium that allows the storage of information in a way accessible for future reference by the FCA, and so that the following conditions are met:
(5) the firm's arrangements must comply with the record keeping requirements irrespective of the technology used.
A firm carrying on insurance distribution activities in relation to insurance-based investment products must retain its records relating to:
for a period of at least five years.
COBS 9A.4 and COBS 10A.7 (record keeping and retention periods for suitability and appropriateness records) set record keeping requirements that specify information which should be recorded by firms carrying on insurance distribution activities in relation to insurance-based investment products and for how long the records must be retained.
For the purposes of SYSC 9.1.2AR, a firm will need to consider whether the requirement in COBS 9A.4.3R or COBS 10A.7.2AR means that a record needs to be retained for longer than five years.
The records required by COBS 9A.4 or COBS 10A.7 must be retained in a medium that allows the storage of information in a way accessible for future reference by the FCA.
For the purposes of (1), the FCA must be able to access the records readily, to reconstitute each element in a clear and accurate manner and to identify easily any changes, corrections or other amendments, and the contents of the records prior to such modifications.
[Note: article 19(4) of the IDD Regulation]
Subject to any other record-keeping rule in the Handbook, the records required under the Handbook should be capable of being reproduced in the English language on paper. Where a firm is required to retain a record of a communication that was not made in the English language, it may retain it in that language. However, it should be able to provide a translation on request. If a firm's records relate to business carried on from an establishment in a country or territory outside the United Kingdom, an official language of that country or territory may be used instead of the English language.
In relation to the retention of records for non-MiFID business, a firm should have appropriate systems and controls in place with respect to the adequacy of, access to, and the security of its records so that the firm may fulfil its regulatory and statutory obligations. With respect to retention periods, the general principle is that records should be retained for as long as is relevant for the purposes for which they are made.
Schedule 1 to each module of the Handbook sets out a list summarising the record-keeping requirements of that module.
SYSC 28 contains rules and guidance on knowledge and competence record keeping in relation to insurance distribution activities undertaken by the firm.
