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New guide aims to help P2P firms ensure their customers understand the risks before investing

August 1, 2019

TISA, the investing and saving membership alliance, has launched a P2P Appropriateness Guide to help firms prepare for the implementation of new rules coming into effect later this year.

The guide aims to give P2P firms across the UK a better understanding of how to meet the requirements published by the FCA back in June, instructing firms to assess an investor’s knowledge and experience of P2P investments, in the absence of receiving financial advice.

The guide has been developed by an industry working group of TISA members, made up of a number of P2P and crowdfunding firms including RateSetter and Goji.

Jeffrey Mushens, TISA’s Technical Policy Director said:

“These tests are set to place a significant burden on P2P platforms. Though the FCA has provided some useful guidance around how to develop the tests, ultimately it will be the responsibility of each platform to devise their own method of assessment in line with their business model.

“To ensure firms are properly equipped ahead of December, we have developed a guide with our members that puts the test into context, sets out example questions and aims to encourage industry good practice and common standards. This follows the model we pioneered to help firms meet their MiFID II appropriateness requirements  providing much-needed clarity ahead of the introduction of new regulation.”

Mario Lupori, CIO of RateSetter and Chair of TISA’s Working Group added:

“The rules and the test are not new. They already exist for many mainstream investments and the FCA is bringing peer-to-peer into that fold. The Investing and Saving Alliance is experienced with these rules so it’s been great for the peer-to-peer sector to have their support. We feel these rules will be healthy for the sector and positive for customers.”

The working group liaised with the FCA during the development of the guide. The P2P Appropriateness guide can be found online here.

Ends….

Issued on behalf of TISA by Atlas Partners, for further information please contact:

Clara Rees Jones: telephone: 020 7183 7154 or 07523609413, email: clara.reesjones@atlas-partners.co.uk

Email: tisa@atlas-partners.co.uk

Notes for Editors

TISA’s ambition is to improve the financial wellbeing of UK consumers by bringing the financial services savings industry together to promote collective engagement, to deliver solutions and to champion innovation for the benefit of people, our industry and the nation.

We do this by focusing on good consumer outcomes and harnessing the power of our broad industry membership base to deliver practical solutions, new digital infrastructure and by devising innovative, evidence-based strategic proposals for government, policy makers and regulators. This holistic approach to address the major consumer issues uniquely positions TISA to deliver independent insight, promote innovation and facilitate good practice.

TISA’s rapidly growing membership is representative of all sectors of the financial services industry. We have over 200-member firms involved in the supply and distribution of savings, investment products and associated services, including the UK’s major investment managers, retail banks, online platforms, insurance companies, pension providers, distributors, building societies, wealth managers, third party administrators, Fintech businesses, financial consultants, financial advisers, industry infrastructure providers and stockbrokers.

TISA will unveil Vision 2025 – our strategic policy roadmap towards delivering a material impact in enhancing consumers’ financial wellbeing at our Annual Conference in December 2019.  Our current strategic policy focus includes making financial guidance more widely available; financial education for young people; retirement savings and addressing consumer engagement, particularly for the vulnerable.

Complementing our development of consumer policy and thought leadership, TISA has become a major industry delivery organisation for consumer focused, digital industry infrastructure initiatives (TeX/STAR, Digital ID, MiFID II and Open Savings & Investment). This reflects TISA’s commitment to open standards and independent governance. TISA is also recognised for the support it provides to members on a range of operational and technical issues targeted at improving infrastructure and processes, establishing standards of good practice and the interpretation and implementation of new rules and regulations. This work currently includes MiFID II, CASS, SM&CR and addressing cybercrime.

Supporting Documents:

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