Legal firm Hogan Lovells is launching a Regulatory Accelerator to help UK fintech startups to understand and navigate the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) regulatory regime.
The online resource is designed to provide information, tools and guidance for fintech startups to allow them to understand whether they are conducting regulated activities or issuing financial promotions and need to be an authorised firm or an appointed representative.
It also provides information on the FCA application process, what companies need to demonstrate to the FCA in order to be eligible for authorisation and the key rules that will apply to the business once it becomes authorised.
A survey by Innovate Finance found that on average getting a company authorised cost £200,000. Hogan Lovell hopes its accelerator can reduce that cost.
Cost and management time devoted to becoming and being authorised are a major investment for any business, says Rachel Kent, Global Head of Hogan Lovells Financial Institutions Sector.
We know that the FCA has gone a long way to help with their Regulatory Accelerator programme but we also know that this is not available for everyone, so we have created our own Regulatory Accelerator tool to address the challenges we see FinTech clients facing on a daily basis.
For inexperienced startup founders navigating the regulatory environments of industries can often prove expensive and in some cases fatal to the business.
However, bumping up against regulations is often seen as something of a badge of honour for young disruptive startups. Some of the most highly valued private tech companies, such as Uber and Airbnb, often making headlines for their tussles with regulators.
New disruptive businesses models are forcing many governments to rewrite regulations as quickly as companies are growing.
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