S166 Reports are often required by the regulator on a single or sometimes multiple subjects where they feel that the regulated firm may have shortcomings or failings. CEI Compliance is the UK's fastest growing regulatory consultancy and provides associate opportunities to consultants and cost effective value to financial services and other regulated companies.

1. Free Guide to Senior
Management
For S166 Skilled
Persons Reports
“Regulatory scrutiny is like a car crash in slow
motion, the right compliance consultant is your
ABS brakes. You don’t know where you will end
up but at least you can steer through it!”
Tony Woodward-
Chartered Fellow of the CISI
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2. ©CEI Compliance – Free Guide to Senior Management facing a Section 166
S166 Reports are often required by the regulator on a single or sometimes
multiple subjects where they feel that the regulated firm may have
shortcomings or failings.
So does receiving a Section 166 Skilled Persons Report
mean to your firm?
Tony Woodward, a former CEO of a city firm explains;
“Between November 2007 and June 2008 the City stock broking firm that I
presided over as CEO was visited by the FSA. What followed was a strong
attack by the regulator using a section 166, which cost in excess of £500,000 to
defend and an immeasurable cost in lost management time, staff time and
productivity. During this period the venom of the attack was at times
unfathomable, we engaged experts who in turn had ex-FSA staff who seemed
to be as stumped as we were about the regulator’s concerns and objectives.”
Tony goes on to say, “Senior Management in regulated firms typically believe they are doing the right
thing and that they can explain to the FSA why they do certain things and they will understand, they are
very highly mistaken. I do not work as a compliance consultant, I work with senior managers on a peer-
to-peer basis, sharing real life experience to underline the genuinely valuable and rare advice I impart. I fully
understand and communicate to senior management how the FSA want to see financial firms run and, in
a macro view, the organisational structures required to run effective compliance without creating
enormous compliance departments which drag on profitability.”
Tony’s contact details are available on request
What is a FSMA Section 166 Skilled Persons Report?
A key part of the process is a Section 165 which is a written notice for
specified documentation to be provided to the FSA for their assessment and
review. This will sometimes provide you with an idea of what they are looking
for:
Tip 1 You should get your files reviewed, preferably independently by a
compliance consultancy at the same time, so as to prepare your firm for
whatever may follow; which on occasions is nothing.
Reality Check – There is no smoke without fire
The Section 166 also has to be in writing and may, or may not carry with it a
Draft Requirement Notice. This notice sets out the skilled person requirements;
scope of the report, considerations regarding calculating recompense and
redress if required and provide an inkling as to the purpose, if you read
between the lines.
Tip 2 A compliance consultant should be engaged to help you read between the lines. FSA code needs to
be deciphered by a consultant experienced in the workings of the FSA.
Reality Check - You will probably not know what FSA are driving at, it may not be what you think.
Tip 3 Too often, advisers see this demand by the regulator as a personal slight against them or their firm, the
advice or the way their customer’s have been treated.
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3. ©CEI Compliance – Free Guide to Senior Management facing a Section 166
Reality Check - This is a highly stressful period for senior management; it is a threat to the firm and senior
management careers!
If the discussions with the FSA have been focussed on the removal of your permissions, then there will likely
be advice issues. If threats have been forthcoming regarding your continued trading as a whole, then there
are likely to be advice issues. However, if they have reviewed some files and have asked for a sample to be
reviewed by the “Skilled Person” as the subject of the report, it is more than likely that there are systems and
controls worries, processes and procedures are not being followed either at all or consistently by one or
more of your advisers. You would also have been expected to have picked this up for yourself with your
ongoing monitoring plan. Areas that need reinforcement are not always obvious to firm’s management and
often needs independent views on systems and controls.
Tip 4 Money spent on ensuring you are compliant beforehand is a small fraction of the costs of a S166.
Reality Check - During a S166, the FSA can summon your S166 consultant and/or your auditor to attend their
offices at your cost, whenever they wish.
Section 166 Statistics
In 2008/2009 there were 56 Section 166 Reports completed costing a total of £12,800,000. Even removing the
largest case, costing £2.4M, the average cost was still in excess of £185,000 each. Incidentally, a one man
band costs was only £3,000, so not all of them are beyond the scope of reality. Compare this to 2005/2006
when 17 reports were completed and you will see the average
number of cases and the costs have escalated, mainly due to the
big consultancies charging into the area with their large teams of
analysts and managers and partners.
Section 166 areas of concern
The areas covered in the latest year’s S166 reports were Client
Money, Corporate Governance, Past Business Reviews, TCF,
Systems and Controls, Capital adequacy, Regulatory Reporting
and Market Abuse. Many of these resulted in headline fines as can
be seen through the FSA Final Notices on their website.
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/Pages/Library/Communication/Notices/Final/2010/index.shtml
Who carries out S166.
Does the FSA have the right to appoint the big accountancy firms? The simple answer is yes. Under S166 of
FSMA 2000, the FSA can then nominate a person to make a report who, in the authority’s view, has the skills
necessary to make a report on the matter concerned.
Does this HAVE to be a big accountancy firm? No, the FSA will normally ask you to provide a list of at least
three compliance firms and ask for your preferred nomination. They will normally honour your
recommendation provided that they are happy that the compliance consultancy has the required skills.
Tip 5 The first thing that you need to do is issue a companywide document preservation order, this ensures
that everyone knows not to conceal, delete, destroy, shred or in any way dispose of any document as
these may help you in your new circumstances.
Reality check - Under FSMA Section 177 it can be a criminal offence if a person destroys any documents
suspecting an investigation.
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4. ©CEI Compliance – Free Guide to Senior Management facing a Section 166
Who do you get to help?
There are several points to consider here, when preparing your list of Skilled Person nominees;
 Does the Consultancy have the right experience and skill set available? There is no point in using a
consultancy that has exclusively dealt with mortgage brokers or stockbrokers, if you are an IFA firm.
 Is the Consultancy staffed by adequately qualified people with broad professional and life-sense
experience to provide a balanced view point?
 Is the Consultancy familiar with the FSA and their ways of working?
 Do they have the capacity to ramp up quickly if the FSA change the scope to require a project
based S166 for larger samples of cases or a more detailed analysis of your systems and controls?
 Are they committed to professionalism, quality and accurate representation?
You only get a one chance with this. Do not treat the bidding process like a car insurance quote. The
cheapest is just that, cheap and with no frills. Quite often single consultant deals can be dangerous if their
views are jaundiced for some reasons or focussed in one particular area. Without a sanity check of an
external person they could be inadvertently wandering off scope or not have the support to reinforce their
conclusions.
Tip 6 The cheapest is not necessarily the best option, FSA need to believe the independent compliance
consultant has the skills to carry out the job to their satisfaction or yours.
CEI Compliance Consultants are experienced, skilled, and flexible. They always have a Quality Assurance
and Project Oversight who provides this sounding board and independent viewpoint.
So what happens when you get your quotes and they are all different? Nobody likes strangers poking about
in their affairs for too long. You need to be prepared for some uncomfortable news, but do not see it as a
fight or justification exercise, the consultant is there to obtain facts and evidence. To do this work correctly,
the files, systems and controls, policies and governance, TCF or whatever aspect of review has been
instructed has to be done properly for your own sake. Sit down and consider what would happen if you
were new to your firm;
 How long would you want to understand the actual role you are going
to perform, with all the parameters, guidelines and limitations?
 How long would you want to read the company policies and
compliance manual?
 How long would it take you to write a report on ten or twenty files,
meticulously reviewed and appraised, ensuring all the evidence is
noted and identified?
 How long would it take to review that number of files properly, in detail,
objectively and commercially?
 Would you consider it fair to prevent the firm from adding in their
response to the report?
 How long would you like to spend on your report making sure that it
fairly represents the evidence you have seen and taken into account
the holistic view of each case?
Any compliance consultant who can review more than 4 differing and varied cases per day (or 2 pension
cases) from a cold start, is misleading you or selling you short and making uninformed decisions and
conclusions that are sent to the FSA on your behalf. What value is your business worth to you over the next
12 months, five or ten years?
Tip 7 It is worth getting a thorough and professional job done while you have the chance, the cost of FSA
scrutiny, defending your firm with compliance consultants and lawyers the cost of fines or loss of livelihood is
exponentially greater.
Reality check - After all, we are aware that if you choose well or choose badly, you may only have one
chance at this.
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5. ©CEI Compliance – Free Guide to Senior Management facing a Section 166
What is it going to cost?
Price should be viewed in the round. If FSA decide you are guilty they will ask for your costs in conducting
the s166 and keep this in mind when assessing the necessity for fines or the severity of fines. Therefore often a
high cost of the s166 can mean a reduction in ultimate fine; the true cost of each purchasing decision will
show itself over time. Cost issues continue to present themselves over the useful life of the product or service
purchased, long after the purchase was actually made. If a report becomes long standing company
history, the cost is minimal: if the company does not last the course, the cost far exceeds the price.
What can we offer?
We do not keep staff around in case of suitable work and deploy them when and if the need arises, we only
use experienced and qualified compliance staff that are specific to the project needs. There will only be
the required people working on the report that needs to be there at any one time this focused approach
keeps the cost to your firm at the level required and nothing else. Quality Assurance is always carried out
independently and you are always encouraged, and invited to provide management responses to the
reports findings.
Once you appoint us, we will discuss with you and the FSA the scope of the document and iron out any
wrinkles. We will identify the initial documents required as best we can and make any preparations for the
additional resource we have allocated so that they can start immediately on day 1 to conduct their part of
the work efficiently and effectively.
Reality check - CEI Compliance will always conduct a review of your systems and controls before
accepting you as a client (obviously an exception in a S166 exercise) and will provide you with
recommendations for improvements.
As Tony Woodward remembers:
“Had I had the guidance of an expert, with the experience I now have today, my company and our
board would have saved hundreds of thousands in costs, a similar amount in lost productivity and we
would have reduced our personal and corporate risk.”
For help call:
Lee Werrell – FInstSMM Chartered MCSI Cert PFS
Managing Director
CEI Compliance Limited
lw@cei-compliance-limited.co.uk
Web: www.cei-compliance-limted.co.uk
www.skilledpersonsreports.co.uk
www.complianceconsultant.org
www.ceicompliance.co.uk
www.s166.co.uk
Call +44 (0) 7092 289901 Now to arrange a free quotation