The FCA will reduce the time it takes to authorise investment funds such as non-UCITS retail schemes and Qualified Investor Schemes by April next year, in a move to strengthen the UK’s competitive edge.
According to Clive Adamson, FCA director of supervision, the current approved timeframe of six months for these schemes has been reduced to three months for Non-UCITS retail schemes and two months for Qualified Investor Schemes (QIS).
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Adamson said that from April 2015, these will be further cut to two months and one month respectively.
FCA is aiming to slash the approval times of Non-UCITS such as unit trusts to three from six by next April, and by a further month in 2015.
Adamson said: "The FCA also aims to indicate its decision on UCITS within six weeks for 90% of applications.
"The regulator’s approach is to focus on the role of asset managers as trusted agents, he said. "We want to strike a balance and encourage responsibilities.
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By GlobalData"They (Ireland and Luxembourg) have been faster than our current system. We are not lowering our standards; we are just applying more resources," he added.
