Offshore Money Managers (OMM) “Announce another Proud First”

Some years ago OMM became the first specialist expatriate financial services adviser in Spain to be granted full authorisation and licence by the Spanish regulator the Dirección General de Seguros (DGS).

Not content with offering these services purely in Spain, however, OMM has now achieved ANOTHER FIRST. Once again, patience and perseverance have paid off and OMM recently were informed by the DGS and the FSA that their application to “Passport” their services into the UK had been approved.

The rigorous application process which DGS authorisation demands means that even now there are still only a small number of similar firms of advisers throughout Spain who have gained such approval from the Spanish regulatory authority. Since then OMM have grown their business steadily to become one of the most successful and respected financial advisory firms of its kind throughout Spain and the Islands. With a multi-lingual team of Appointed Representatives and support staff the range of nationalities amongst its clients has also expanded greatly to add to the mainly UK base and the common denominator is that most of this expansion has resulted from satisfied clients referring their friends and relatives on to OMM and the services it can provide.

The advent of the E.U. Insurance. and Meditation Directive has (amongst other things) brought with it an opportunity for financial services companies who are fully licensed and regulated in their base country – in OMM’s case, Spain – to apply for permission to offer their services into any other EU country a process referred to as “Passporting”.

Keen to be able to offer this facility to those of their clients who have financial interests or assets in countries other than Spain OMM looked upon this as a significant opportunity to expand their services and with the majority of clients from a UK background this seemed the obvious area into which to apply to “Passport”. What they soon discovered was that, as with full regulation, OMM were breaking new ground with their application to “passport” and, inevitably, as with many such situations, they were very much the “guinea pigs” for this process both with its home regulator, the DGS, and the regulator in the UK, the Financial Services Authority or FSA. However, once again, patience and perseverance paid off and OMM recently were informed by the DGS and the FSA that their application to “Passport” their services into the UK had been approved and, with it, the accolade of “Another First”.

So “What does this mean?”
Well, for the time being, OMM see the main benefit being the fact that they are now able to provide full services to their clients in both Spain and the UK under the regulatory umbrella of the DGS and the FSA thus providing full client protection under both regimes. Whilst they have no immediate plans to develop a UK operation they are considering a number of options which may offer an association with a UK IFA company and allow even greater scope for expanded services to their clients in Spain and the UK. After that, well there are numerous other opportunities to passport into other countries from Spain (e.g. Portugal, France, etc..) but perhaps they will let someone else be the first this time – OR PERHAPS NOT!

For further information about the services OMM offer in Spain and the UK, please click click here or click one of the icons below to get in touch with us.