FCA CASS Rules

• The FCA CASS Rules and application course considers the changing environment and how our control CASS frameworks must adapt to remain compliant.
• The FCA CASS Rules course is specifically designed to share practical lessons and good practice techniques to build an effective programme with participant contributions welcomed.
• We look at FCA publications (guidance and Dear CEO letters) to understand the identified issues, the expected responses and how we can practically implement them.
• The FCA CASS Rules course is developed and delivered by a professional trainer experienced in designing and delivering regulatory training programmes across complex organisations.
• The session is directly relatable to FCA Prescribed Responsibility 11 (reference z) – Responsibility for the firm’s compliance with CASS.

• To enable participants to assess their own frameworks against a series of effective controls, and to identify areas requiring strengthening.
• To support ‘reasonable steps’ to ensure regulatory compliance with handling CASS client money and safe custody assets.
• To support where possible open discussions amongst representatives of firms on both challenges experienced and actions to overcome them.
• To provide an overview of regulatory comments from the last 12 months on expectations of compliance with the CASS rulebook.
• To enable participants to promote a clear narrative on how the Prescribed Responsibility for the firm’s compliance with CASS (Client Assets Sourcebook) is effectively and appropriately discharged
• To overview the focus of the CASS Auditor as per the Client Asset Assurance Standard (revised November 2019)

Session 1: Where are we now?

• Covid-19 impact
• Current position – what we should have done already and what’s next
• Summary of recent regulatory publications related to CASS management and FCA-identified issues, such as incorrect TTCA procedures.
• How have we enabled a staff response to the new way of working – and what do we need staff to know and do differently now?

Session 2: Oversight and Culture

• Establish / Implement / Maintain – what’s needed in order to maintain a compliant framework?
• Tone from the top – link to the Prescribed Responsibility Holder
• Culture – you get what you tolerate
• Positive reinforcement of activity around clients’ assets and the link to the SMCR Individual Conduct Rules
• What extra do we need to do to ensure appropriate oversight?
• The fundamental risks to good CASS governance
• Changed CASS reporting flows and Management Information
• CASS Audit – revised Client Asset Assurance Standard (November 2019)

EXERCISE – build the list of questions we’d expect the FCA or CASS Auditor to ask us.  Individual input on questions you’d rather not be asked, so we may focus on what’s needed to answer them robustly.

Session 3: Resolution Packs, documentation and new considerations

• The Core content of the pack – immediate and 48-hour retrieval
• Pack management – awareness/change management/ownership
• Systems access – changes in procedure in 2020
• Retrieval testing in a remote working environment
• Changing reliance on third-party providers and associated persons
• Revised due diligence measures on third parties

Session 4: CASS through an SMCR lens

• Senior Managers – Prescribed Responsibilities and Reasonable Steps
• Certification function – CF10a role holders and beyond
• Conduct Rules – how applied, communicated, trained/assessed and monitored
• Creating and documenting effective CASS oversight of delegation

DISCUSSION – on changes seen within participants own firms and challenges being addressed

Course conclusion – summary, questions and open forum

• Open forum to be participant-led and may include the following:

• Perceived challenges
• Perceived unknowns
• Successful past practices

With over 20 years of training experience in financial services, the trainer is well placed to support you across a range of compliance-related topics.  He is a former Head of Education for HSBC covering the UK and Europe, responsible for regulatory and financial crime related compliance learning.  His time at HSBC was during intense scrutiny from regulators and government functions during the bank’s Deferred Prosecution Agreement.

Other roles include leading the Monitoring and Testing programme for a UK Wealth Manager, and Senior Vice President responsible for Global Risk & Compliance training at a US-based bank.  He also worked in the Insurance Firms division at the Financial Conduct Authority (in the FSA days) where he was the divisional expert for the FCA CASS rules and outcomes required under the Training & Competence handbook.

The HSBC role, along with five years at Barclays in their Private Clients and Wealth functions, has seen him work with retail, commercial, wholesale and private banking channels.  Since leaving HSBC, he has worked with the compliance, HR and operational teams of firms to enhance their regulatory understanding, as well as delivering content across private equity firms, investment houses, banks and wealth managers.  He regularly delivers core programmes for TISA and the Investment Association.

The trainer is a former member of the Investment Management Association Training & Education Committee and won the Thomson Reuters award for “Most Effective Compliance Training at a Regulated Firm” in 2010.

2020 has given us some unexpected priorities and much altered working patterns.  Against this, we still need to focus on the expectations of the regulator.

With new ways of working come new challenges.  Keeping the constant flows of cash and assets identified, segregated and reconciled was challenging enough in the office, let alone with our own and our third-party partners working remotely.

This session does not seek to teach the rules of the CASS handbook.  Instead, it is designed to consider our existing practices against a changing environment in terms of Covid-19 impact, revised Audit standards, SMCR implications and ongoing regulatory comments based on FCA’s assessment of firms.

The focus will be on how we implement effective operational oversight of our handling of clients’ assets.  What controls do we need in place, how can we monitor their effectiveness, and how do we ensure we are seeing the true picture while making it visible to those with senior management responsibility for the firm.

The FCA CASS Rules course will be of primary interest to those involved in CASS regulations operational oversight and those taking on more responsibility in this area, as well as senior managers wanting to understand what reasonable steps to ensure compliance looks like.  It may also benefit those wanting to understand the regulatory viewpoint and how it relates to operational activity as well as those in monitoring and testing, risk or audit-type roles.