Unallocated client money

CASS Anatomy™ Go Premium 7.11.50 IMPORTANT: CASS changed quite a bit after MiFID II. This resource therefore may well be out of date, even if it was accurate once, which it might not have been. This is an article about the FCA’s custody and client money rules — client assets — and is fondly known by its chapter in the FCA SourcebookTable of Contents | 1 | 1A | 3 | 5 | 6 (custody rules) | 7 (client money rules) | 7A | 8 | 9 (PBDA) | 10 Comments? Questions? Suggestions? Requests? Insults? We’d love to 📧 hear from you. Sign up for our newsletter.

The client money rules tell you how not to lose client money; they’re less helpful about that happens when you lose the client. It's handled in CASS 7.11.50 et seq.

7.11.50 says, in a Nutshell™:

A firm may treat a balance allocated to an individual client as unclaimed and therefore no longer client money under CASS 7.11.34, as long as:

(1) this is permitted by law and consistent with the arrangements under which the client money is held;

(2) the firm held the balance for at least six years following the last movement on the client's account (disregarding interest and charges);

(3) it has taken reasonable steps to trace the client concerned and to return the balance; and

(4) the firm complies with CASS Template:7.11.54 R.