Capital adequacy: Sipps firm questions new rules

A Sipps firm has raised concerns over the new capital adequacy rules published by the FCA. The regulator set out its much awaited changes yesterday but Suffolk Life has questioned why all UK commercial property will not be classed as a non-standard asset.Greg Kingston, head of marketing & proposition at Suffolk Life, said: "If they have any doubt about the quality of their Sipp provider, consumers may be disappointed that the FCA's Policy Statement announced that commercial property will be added to the standard assets list."The FCA's PS14/12 acknowledges the fact that there needs to be two parties involved to transfer commercial property. {desktop}{/desktop}{mobile}{/mobile} "A Sipp provider must therefore be certain that any property can be 'transferred with relative ease' to another provider in order to class that property as a standard asset."However, in order to do so they'd need to have a purchasing party in agreement to accept it."This simply cannot be achieved with any certainty, making the argument for all UK commercial property to be defined as non-standard."He said the one possible exception to this would be part-ownership, where there are clear succession planning agreements.He said: "However, it is down to the provider to determine whether or not this is the case, and it may suit the balance sheets of many providers to categorise their property as a standard asset."He cited part of the FCA document confirming that the regulator does not yet have sufficient confidence in Sipp operators to do this. It stated: "We do not see additional systems and control requirements as an appropriate substitute for ensuring that Sipp operators have sufficient capital invested in their business."Mr Kingston said: "The door remains open for sub-standard controls to determine an inappropriate amount of capital reserves when it comes to UK commercial property."He added that by calculating capital requirements on the basis ofAssets Under Administration the FCA risks falling short of fully addressing a longstanding concern that large numbers of 'unsuitable' Sipps being invested into 'unsuitable' assets, often with relatively small fund sizes.Mr Kingston said: "If systems and control requirements are not sufficient to guard against this sort of business then there's a risk that neither does the proposed new capital calculation."It may be that the number of non-standard assets, rather than their value, remains the more appropriate (and therefore safer for consumers) means of calculating capital requirements." The key changes include:- The initial capital requirement calculation should be based on the assets under administration (AUA) over the last 4 quarter-ends rather than at a set point in time. The FCA said this will reduce the compliance burden on firms and help avoid fluctuations in capital requirements- The initial capital requirement constant has been adjusted to smooth the impact on smaller firms. Officials said this will mean a significant reduction from the capital requirements the FCA consulted on for most firms who administer less than £200m of pension assets- Gold bullion, National Savings and Investment products, bank account deposits, units in regulated collective investment schemes and UK commercial property to be added to the standard assets list- The new rules will come into force on 1 September 2016.

Capital adequacy: Sipps firm questions new rules

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