Designated investment - FCA Rulebook Term

The JC’s Reg and Leg resource™ UK Edition →Go uptown Section designated investment, COBS Rules COBS Rules designated investment: (1) a security or a contractually-based investment (other than a funeral plan contract and a right to or interest in a funeral plan contract), that is, any of the following investments, specified in Part III of the Regulated Activities Order (Specified Investments): (a) life policy (subset of article 75 (Contracts of insurance)); (b) share (article 76); (c) debenture (article 77); (ca) alternative debenture (article 77A); (d) government and public security (article 78); (e) warrant (article 79); (f) certificate representing certain securities (article 80); (g) unit (article 81); (h) stakeholder pension scheme (article 82(1)) (ha) personal pension scheme (article 82(2)); (i) option (article 83); for the purposes of the permission regime, this is sub-divided into: (i) option (excluding a commodity option and an option on a commodity future); (ii) commodity option and option on a commodity future; (j) future (article 84); for the purposes of the permission regime, this is sub-divided into: (i) future (excluding a commodity future and a rolling spot forex contract); (ii) commodity future; (iii) rolling spot forex contract; (k) contract for differences (article 85); for the purposes of the permission regime, this is sub-divided into: (i) contract for differences (excluding a spread bet and a rolling spot forex contract); (ii) spread bet; (iii) rolling spot forex contract; (l) rights to or interests in investments in (a) to (k) (article 89); (2) a P2P agreement; and (3) a long-term care insurance contract which is a pure protection contract. View Template Index: Click ᐅ to expand: Regulation Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

In which the FCA, spurred on by the good people of the European Commission, indulge in the four-dimensional Russian doll exercise of figuring out what an “investment” is, for the purposes of what regulation in this crazy higgledy-piggledy world.

What’s in: Broadly:

• Shares and common equity instruments, warrants and so on
• Debt securities and certificates — “Debentures”, which we take to mean negotiable debt securities, though there is some doubt about this as the term isn’t defined and clearly means different things to different people.
• Collective investment schemes
• Pension funds
• Exchange-traded and OTC derivatives
• peer-to-peer credit arrangements
• Long-term care insurance contracts

What’s out: Notably, designated investments do not include deposits or loans and (fire and general) insurance contracts.