The JC’s Reg and Leg resource™
UK Edition
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.
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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]].