FSA to ban UCIS promotion to retail investors

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has proposed to ban the promotion of unregulated collective investment schemes (UCIS) to the vast majority of retail investors.

In a consultation paper published today, the regulator said their promotion will generally be restricted to sophisticated investors and high net worth individuals for whom the products are more likely to be suitable. The FSA said that current rules allow UCIS to be promoted to ordinary retail investors if an adviser first assesses the product's suitability. However, it believes the new rules will prevent this happening, even in the context of financial advice. It added its own review had found that only one in every four advised sales of UCIS to retail customers were suitable, taki...