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Successful FCA applications

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Winner of Best Financial Services Compliance Consultancy 2020 - 2024

2000+

Happy customers served

Types of investment compliance services

As an FCA regulated firm in the investment sector, your regulatory responsibilities can often feel like a burden. We make keeping compliant a lighter lift.

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Applications

Know if you’re ready for the FCA and what to expect from the authorisation process, with support from an investment compliance expert the whole way

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Compliance support

As your firm grows and changes, we’ll be beside you to offer commercially-focused and risk-balanced investment compliance services, advice and hands-on delivery

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Audits and advisory

From due diligence for a merger or acquisition, to FCA investigations or changes in your regulatory responsibilities, we deliver technical advice, in plain English

Wondering how long it’ll take? What your options are? Where to start? Or whether you’re ready to become authorised?

Head to our FCA authorisation FAQs

CASS Audits

The FCA’s client money and custody assets rules, known as CASS, have been a particular focus for the regulator since the financial crisis of 2008. The CASS rules are intended to protect client money and custody assets by ensuring they are adequately segregated in the event of a firm’s or its custodian’s failure.  

The CASS rules apply at all times, and your standards must remain at the same high level. Whether by carrying out a high-level review of your CASS arrangements or a full review of your processes, we can assess the adequacy of your CASS controls and provide proportionate and effective recommendations for improvements where needed. If you are expecting a CASS external audit, we can help you prepare before the auditor arrives, advise you on findings before the report is finalised or assist you with any remedial work needed. 

 

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Financial crime prevention

Keep on top of your financial crime compliance and understand your responsibilities, with hands-on support from our world-class regulatory experts

 

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Who we support

We support these types of organisations to keep innovating
  • Agency Brokerages
  • Family Offices
  • FX & CFD brokerages
  • AIFMs
  • Hedge Funds
  • Robo Advisors
  • Commodity Futures & Options Brokerages
  • Retail & Institutional Wealth Managers
  • Social Trading Platforms
  • Corporate Finance Advisors
  • Investment Advisors
  • Stockbrokers
  • Discretionary Fund Managers
  • Investment Managers
  • Trading Signal Providers
  • Exchanges and Trading Platforms
  • Private Equity & Venture Capital
  • Consumer Credit
  • General Insurance
  • IFAs
  • Investments Product Providers
  • Mortgage Brokers / Lenders
  • Pension Scheme Operators/Providers
  • Restricted Financial Advisers
  • System Providers
  • Trade Associations
And many more...

Acquisition Due Diligence

We have been helping UK and overseas firms acquire FCA regulated businesses since 2012. Over that time we have handled regulatory due diligence on more than 85 regulated entities, advising on transactions worth over £8 billion.

If you are looking at acquiring a regulated firm, our expert team can help. We offer a range of acquisition due diligence services to help you fully understand the regulatory risk any transaction poses.

View our Acquisition Due Diligence downloadable guide

Titan-Wealth
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Titan Wealth acquisition of Independent Wealth Planners

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18 December 2024
GlobalX
Etoro
Oaktree
Seccl
Revolut
The level of assistance and advice Thistle provide is first rate. Thistle’s help was key in all of our applications to the FCA; all have been successful quickly.
Jefferson Capital Ltd

What our investment clients have to say

“Thistle Initiatives provided us with a high level of support during our FCA application for authorisation, including meeting FCA expectations around CASS and assisting us in preparing our ICARA document. Additionally, they provided us invaluable expertise when answering challenging questions from the regulator and assisted us to achieve FCA authorisation quickly.”
Upvest
Upvest

“Thistle Initiatives provide us with invaluable expertise with their ongoing compliance support and delivered end-to-end assistance with our FCA application to add Alternative Investment Fund Management to our permissions. The service from the team is always on-point and efficient; we highly recommend them.”

London & Oxford Group
London & Oxford Group

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