Financial Promotions Guide
2.5 // Regulatory disclosures
Financial Promotions Guide
2.5 // Regulatory disclosures
Status disclosure:
In any of your financial promotions or communications with customers, you must:
- Specify your legal name as it appears in the Financial Services Register. You can include a trading name, but the legal name must accompany it.
- Make it clear that you are a credit broker and not a lender.
- Include your FCA-regulated status.
- Use the formulation “Financial Conduct Authority”; you cannot abbreviate to “FCA”.
You can add words to the disclosure, provided it is clear, fair and not misleading.
- If you are an authorised firm, the wording that should be used is “(legal name) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority”.
- If you are an appointed representative, the wording should be “(name of authorised representative) is an appointed representative of (principal firm name) which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.”
You can see two different disclosure examples below.
Eligibility criteria:
You need to make the following clear within your financial promotions:
- Finance is subject to application and status – you can’t state or imply that credit available regardless of the customer’s financial circumstances or status.
- Who is eligible to apply for finance, and any restrictions on who can make an application, for example ‘Terms and Conditions apply, over 18’s only.'
Commission disclosure
- Details on the existence and nature of all your commission arrangements.
- If your commission arrangements, as well as the amount of commission, impacts your impartiality in recommending a product to a customer, which in turn may affect the customer’s willingness to transact.
Clear commission disclosure is essential for meeting your responsibilities and promoting customer understanding.
- You must consider all customer communications, including but not limited to, websites, marketing and emails.
- You should also consider how you present this information to ensure it is likely to be understood by your customers. For example, layering information by providing key details in your website footer, with a link to your initial disclosure document for further details.
- The existence, nature and amount of any financial arrangement with a lender should be shown prominently. This is really important and applies when you promote or recommend a credit product. These disclosures may be in general terms, e.g. you don’t need to provide the specific amount of commission, but you should provide details of how this is calculated, and when the customer will be informed of the amount.
Example disclosures
<Dealer legal name> are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. FCA number <FCA number>. We are a credit broker and not a lender. Finance subject to status. Terms and conditions apply. A guarantee may be required. Over 18s only.
We can introduce you to a limited group of credit providers who may be able to offer you finance for your purchase. Each credit provider may have different interest rates and charges.
We are only able to offer finance products from these providers, which may be suitable for you, and we will explain the key features of your chosen product to you. As a credit broker with a limited panel of preferred credit providers from whom we receive commission, <dealer> is not impartial and is free to prefer its own interests.
We are NOT independent financial advisors. We will provide details of the products available only from the credit providers that we work with, but no advice or recommendation will be made. You must decide whether the finance product is right for you.
We will receive payment from the credit provider for introducing you to them. The amount we receive could vary by credit provider, which may be a higher amount in relation to certain products compared with other products available. The credit providers we work with pay commission at different rates. However, the amount of commission that we receive from a credit provider is predetermined and cannot be changed for your agreement.
We do not charge you a fee for our services, but the commission we receive from the credit provider impacts the amount you pay.
For full details on our commission arrangements and further important information, please refer to our initial disclosure document:
Contact address on financial promotions
You must include your name and postal address unless:
- It is made via television or radio broadcast;
- Where the promotion is a point of sale item displayed on the retailer’s premises which aren’t intended for customers to take away, e.g. showroom banners or posters;
- The promotion includes the name and postal address of a credit broker.