Investments Compliance Services - Thistle Initiatives

Types of investment compliance services

As an FCA regulated firm in the investment sector, your regulatory responsibilities can often feel like a burden. We make keeping compliant a lighter lift.

Applications

Know if you’re ready for the FCA and what to expect from the authorisation process, with support from an investment compliance expert the whole way

Compliance support

As your firm grows and changes, we’ll be beside you to offer commercially-focused and risk-balanced investment compliance services, advice and hands-on delivery

Audits and advisory

From due diligence for a merger or acquisition, to FCA investigations or changes in your regulatory responsibilities, we deliver technical advice, in plain English

Wondering how long it’ll take? What your options are? Where to start? Or whether you’re ready to become authorised?

Head to our FCA authorisation FAQs

CASS Audits

The FCA’s client money and custody assets rules, known as CASS, have been a particular focus for the regulator since the financial crisis of 2008. The CASS rules are intended to protect client money and custody assets by ensuring they are adequately segregated in the event of a firm’s or its custodian’s failure. 

The CASS rules apply at all times, and your standards must remain at the same high level. Whether by carrying out a high-level review of your CASS arrangements or a full review of your processes, we can assess the adequacy of your CASS controls and provide proportionate and effective recommendations for improvements where needed. If you are expecting a CASS external audit, we can help you prepare before the auditor arrives, advise you on findings before the report is finalised or assist you with any remedial work needed.

Find out more ➜

Who we support

We support these types of organisations to keep innovating

Agency Brokerages
Family Offices
FX & CFD brokerages
AIFMs
Hedge Funds
Robo Advisors
Commodity Futures & Options Brokerages
Retail & Institutional Wealth Managers
Social Trading Platforms
Corporate Finance Advisors
Investment Advisors
Stockbrokers
Discretionary Fund Managers
Investment Managers
Trading Signal Providers
Exchanges and Trading Platforms
Private Equity & Venture Capital
Consumer Credit
General Insurance
IFAs
Investments Product Providers
Mortgage Brokers / Lenders
Pension Scheme Operators/Providers
Restricted Financial Advisers
System Providers
Trade Associations

And many more...

Acquisition Due Diligence

We have been helping UK and overseas firms acquire FCA regulated businesses since 2012. Over that time we have handled regulatory due diligence on more than 85 regulated entities, advising on transactions worth over £8 billion.

If you are looking at acquiring a regulated firm, our expert team can help. We offer a range of acquisition due diligence services to help you fully understand the regulatory risk any transaction poses.

View our Acquisition Due Diligence downloadable guide

Titan Wealth acquisition of Independent Wealth Planners

Find out more

18 December 2024

Connection Capital acquisition of Hood Group Ltd

Find out more

7 November 2024

CBPE investment in Clifton Asset Management

Find out more

4 November 2024

Saltus acquisition of Tavistock

Find out more

9 October 2024

Oaktree acquisition of Close Brothers Asset Management

Find out more

2 October 2024

Wren Sterling acquisition of In Focus Group

Find out more

16 August 2024

Skerritts acquisition of Black Swan Financial Planning

Find out more

11 July 2024

My Pension Expert acquisition of Tenet&You

Find out more

5 June 2024

Titan Wealth acquisition of Loveday & Partners

Find out more

24 April 2024

Pollen Street Capital acquisition of Mattioli Woods

Find out more

8 March 2024

Perspective Financial Group Limited being acquired by Charlesbank Capital Partners LLC

Find out more

12 February 2024

Skerritts Group acquisition of Chadwick McLean

Find out more

19 December 2023

Liberate Wealth acquisition of Stafford House Investments

Find out more

11 December 2023

Telford Mann completed its transaction with Titan Wealth

Find out more

24 November 2023

Titan Wealth completed its transaction with Parthenon Capital

Find out more

21 November 2023

Titan Wealth acquisition of Prism Financial Advice Ltd

Find out more

12 October 2023

Skerritts Group acquisition of Ambrose Fisher Ltd

Find out more

2 October 2023

One Four Nine Group acquisition of 1st Chartered Financial Planning

Find out more

25 September 2023

Wren Sterling acquisition of Stockdale & Co deal

Find out more

22 September 2023

One Four Nine Group acquisition of Rainbird & Co

Find out more

18 July 2023

Wren Sterling acquisition of Ralston Bennett Financial Planning and Callisto Wealth

Find out more

25 May 2023

Titan Wealth acquisition of Ravenscroft Investment

Find out more

24 May 2023

Wren Sterling acquisition of Active Wealth Management Limited and HB&O Financial Services

Find out more

5 April 2023

Skerritts acquisition of Mercier Allen Associates

Find out more

4 April 2023

Craven Street Wealth acquisition of Bernard Barrett Associates

Find out more

10 March 2023

Titan Wealth Holdings acquisition of Parthenon Capital Investment

Find out more

2 March 2023

Wren Sterling acquisition of Morfitt & Turnball

Find out more

23 January 2023

Telford Mann acquisition by Titan Wealth Holdings

Find out more

4 January 2023

Verso Wealth Management acquisition of IEP Financial

Find out more

15 December 2022

Verso Wealth Management acquisition of Heritage

Find out more

15 December 2022

Skerritts Group acquisition of PS Financial Advisers Ltd

Find out more

1 September 2022

Verso Wealth Management acquisition of Campbell Thomson Insurance Services

Find out more

22 August 2022

One Four Nine Group acquisition of Russell Gibson Financial Management

Find out more

12 August 2022

Preservation Capital Partners becoming majority shareholder of Saltus Group

Find out more

4 August 2022

One Four Nine Group acquisition of APC Financial Solutions & Consultancy Services

Find out more

22 July 2022

What our investment clients have to say

"The team at Thistle provided their specialist knowledge and expertise throughout the FCA application process from start to finish, including assisting with responding to the FCA’S detailed questions after submission. Suffice to say, we’re very happy."

Ely Place Partners

“Thistle Initiatives provided us with a high level of support during our FCA application for authorisation, including meeting FCA expectations around CASS and assisting us in preparing our ICARA document. Additionally, they provided us invaluable expertise when answering challenging questions from the regulator and assisted us to achieve FCA authorisation quickly.”

Upvest

“Thistle Initiatives provide us with invaluable expertise with their ongoing compliance support and delivered end-to-end assistance with our FCA application to add Alternative Investment Fund Management to our permissions. The service from the team is always on-point and efficient; we highly recommend them.”

London & Oxford Group

“Our experience of working with Thistle Initiatives to add our CASS permissions has been great. Thistle helped to create the application to vary our FCA permissions and helped to respond to the FCA’s detailed questions following submission. Thistle assisted quickly and clearly at all times, including during the more complex aspects of the process.”

Cirdan Capital

“Our experience of working with Thistle Initiatives has been exceptionally good. After due consideration and comparison of various service providers, WMG Advisors engaged Thistle to perform an external review of our systems and controls, our policies and procedures and to provide ongoing training to meet our compliance needs. Thistle deployed serious resources to the project, and provided comprehensive analysis and recommendations. Thistle has responded quickly and clearly to all of our requests to date. We continue to be impressed with both the methodology and the people that we deal with throughout their organisation.”

WMG Funds LLP

“From end to end, Thistle’s assistance with our discretionary and advisory application for FCA authorisation was fantastic. They provided a professional and efficient service assisting with all aspects; we are very satisfied with the outcome.”

Topstone Capital

Some of our recent investment blog posts

Information for principals with overseas appointed representatives

Investments

1000+

2000+

Types of investment compliance services

Applications

Compliance support

Audits and advisory

CASS Audits

Financial crime prevention

Who we support

Acquisition Due Diligence

IFPR MIFIDPRU Gap Analysis Case Study: Key Challenges and Insights

The Investment Firms Prudential Regime (IFPR)

Launching an Appointed Representative

What our investment clients have to say

Some of our recent investment blog posts

Information for principals with overseas appointed representatives

Thistle Initiatives Newsletters - June 2024

Thistle Retail Newsletter - June 2024

Sectors

Insights

Services

About

Contact

FAQs

Legal

Follow us