Pooled fund meaning

Prohibition on bundling Among the most hotly debated aspects of the 2014 Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) was the ban on investment managers accepting services from broker‑dealers that were effectively funded by charging clients an elevated brokerage commission. From the start of 2018, when MiFID II took effect, research fees had to be separated and settled independently from execution charges. Asset managers were required either to meet research expenses from their own budgets—via hard dollar payments—or to use a more complex mechanism, the research payment account, which pooled contributions collected by broker‑dealers and deployed them solely to purchase research. While numerous large firms chose to absorb research outlays themselves, smaller managers frequently relied on the research payment account route or passed the costs straight through to their fund clients. The prohibition proved unsatisfactory, prompting the first adjustments in March 2022. The FCA then recognised that bond‑market research was not in fact being financed through a concealed uplift within trading spreads and carved fixed income out of the...

This Practice Note addresses the disclosure duties applying from 6 April 2014 to occupational and personal pension schemes under the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2013, SI 2013/2734 (the 2013 Disclosure Regulations). For information on disclosure requirements that apply outside the 2013 Disclosure Regulations, see Practice Note: Event-specific disclosure requirements for occupational and personal pension schemes. For details of the disclosure requirements that applied before 6 April 2014 to occupational and personal pension schemes, see Practice Notes: Occupational pension schemes—disclosure requirements before 6 April 2014 (ARCHIVED) and Personal pension schemes—disclosure requirements before 6 April 2014 [Archived]. In this Practice Note, references to ‘trustees’ include, in the context of a contract-based scheme, the managers of the scheme. Introduction of new disclosure regime from 6 April 2014 The 2013 Disclosure Regulations took effect on 6 April 2014, amalgamating the disclosure provisions previously set out in: the Occupational Pension Schemes (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 1996, SI 1996/1655—repealed, and the Personal Pension Schemes (Disclosure...

Pool Reinsurance Company Limited (also known as 'Pool Re') Formed in 1993 after a spate of terrorist attacks in the early 1990s across London and elsewhere in England connected to the situation in Northern Ireland, Pool Re arose when the scale of losses exposed how hard it was to insure commercial property against terrorism. Potentially vast claims and the absence of any reliable way to predict future losses meant traditional solutions failed. As insurers relied on reinsurers to shoulder exceptionally large claims, both sides concluded they could no longer offer terrorism cover through conventional means. Pool Re is a mutual reinsurer, funded and owned by the vast majority of insurers and Lloyd’s Syndicates that underwrite UK commercial property. The scheme benefits from a government guarantee that will meet claims if the pooled fund is exhausted, reviewed every five years; HM Treasury extended this in March 2022 for a further five years. Most buildings insurance and business interruption policies limit terrorism cover to £100,000 per event...

Scope of this Practice Note The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) chapter 4 of the Conduct of Business sourcebook (COBS 4) broadly applies to firms when they communicate with a client or prospective client while undertaking designated investment business, MiFID business, equivalent third country business or optional exemption business, and when they communicate or approve a financial promotion relating to investment business. This Practice Note reviews COBS 4.12A and COBS 4.12B, which set out the rules on promoting restricted mass market investments (RMMIs) and non-mass market investments (NMMIs). It also addresses the provisions in COBS 4.13 concerning the marketing of undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS). This Practice Note forms part of a wider series examining the COBS 4 rules and should be read alongside the following Practice Notes: Introduction to the FCA COBS 4 rules Application of the FCA’s COBS 4 rules FCA COBS 4 rules—Putting together financial promotions FCA COBS 4 rules—Form and content of promotions COBS...