This is a statement about the firm’s regulatory status. It an be included in letter headings or in a paragraph within a letter. It can be included in terms of Business. It should only be used on regulated activities.
There is then the Initial Disclosure Document, to be sent to the customer before the firm’s services are used or at the time the services are first used. This IDD contains certain basic regulatory information about the firm and their service.
- Information about the firm,
- Information about the service the firm provides,
- How a customer uses the firms compliant system,
- That the customer may be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
For convenience it could also contain information about choice of law and data protection wording to save building these into other documents elsewhere in the process.
The IDD would be provided to the customer at the outset of the sales process or sent to the customer immediately after the telephone sale. The FSA rules require the customer to be provided with the IDD before the sale is made, but the rules accept that telephone sales, carried out when the customer requires immediate cover, do not allow this. So for telephone sales the information is provided to the customer on the phone and with the customers agreement the IDD is then sent in the post.