A discretionary investment manager has had its permissions cancelled after failing to keep up with fee payments to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
In addition the company, Analyst Investment Management Plc (AIMP), failed to respond to the FCA’s repeated requests for it to pay the overdue balance. This led the FCA to conclude it was not “fit and proper”.
In its final notice, the regulator said the company was not “ready, willing and organised” to comply with the requirements and standards of the regulatory system.
It added: “These failures lead the authority to conclude that AIMP has failed to manage its business in such a way as to ensure that its affairs are conducted in a sound and prudent manner, that it is not a fit and proper person, and that it is therefore failing to satisfy the threshold conditions in relation to the regulated activities for which AIMP has had a permission.”
Between 12 March 2015 and 3 February 2016, the FCA sent the company eight invoices for £250 each. All were issued for non-submission of regulatory returns, which had been due through the course of 2015.
A warning notice was issued to the company on 31 May 2016, and a decision to cancel the company’s Part 4A permission was taken by the FCA’s regulatory decisions committee.
According to its website, AIMP was founded in 2000 and provides discretionary investment management services to private and institutional clients. It says the company’s philosophy is inspired by the teachings of “Mr Benjamin Graham” and the success of US-based value investors such as Warren Buffett, Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb and Tweedy Browne.
