Supreme Court backs FCA's tough stance on collectives in landmark case

The highest court in the UK has backed the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in a landmark case that could have far-reaching consequences for risky ventures.

Lawyers for the FCA have been battling Capital Alternatives and others on the grounds that they promoted and operated collective investment schemes (CIS) without authorisation. Central to the case is the definition of a CIS, and in March the Court of Appeal ruled the Capital Alternatives schemes met the definition of collective investments - that they pooled investors' monies and that the investments were managed centrally by a firm or firms. Capital Alternatives appealed to the Supreme Court to fight the ruling, but the case has now been thrown out, making the Court of Appeal's decis...