FCA warns that IF ISAs may be delayed says FT

Today, the FCA sent out a letter to 31 lenders telling them they may have to wait a little longer due to regulatory tweaks that have made them “unable to make authorisation decisions,” according to a copy seen by FT Alphaville.

The sticking points relate to changes proposed by the Treasury on secondary trading platforms, which have “similar characteristics to [collective investment schemes]; changes to client money rules to provide “greater protection for P2P investors”; and the general distinction between collective investment schemes (CIS) and peer-to-peer lending, which the Treasury clarified late last year in clumsy style. They said if a site was approved by the FCA as an electronic lending platform then by definition it wasn’t a CIS. Simples.