Clearer Compliance: Approver Liability After EFG Censure

​On 30 July the FCA censured a firm for approving minibond promotions that were unfair, unclear and misleading. It set out a penalty of £386,467 and then declined to impose it, because the firm had already been wound up. The figure went on the record regardless, which reads as a message to everyone still holding a section 21 permission.

​Ten weeks earlier the FCA had reviewed ten approvers across BNPL, crowdfunding and corporate finance. Firms were approving adverts with unsubstantiated claims, letting retail investors see promotions written for professional clients, and relying on third-party templates instead of doing proper checks themselves.

​Put those two together and the approval decision itself has become the thing the regulator examines.

​So on the morning of 10 September we're getting a small group of senior compliance leaders around a table to work out what that means for the way you actually operate.