FCA bans UCIS sales to retail investors; details exempt products

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned the sale of unregulated collective investment schemes to ordinary retail investors.

The predessor to the FCA, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), proposed the ban back in August. UCIS are pooled investments in often high-risk, esoteric assets. Investors that put money into them have no recourse the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Today the FCA has published rules saying that in the retail market, promotions of these riskier and often very complex fund structures will generally be restricted to sophisticated investors and high net worth individuals for whom these products are more likely to be suitable. A number of products lie out of scope of th...