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Recent Developments Highlight the Importance of the CASS Resolution Pack

Introduction

The FSA regards the protection of client money and assets (CASS) as one of the fundamental issues facing the financial services industry.  The failure of Lehman Brothers and MF Global served only to force the subject of CASS compliance yet higher up the FSA’s list of priorities.  Two recent events have brought CASS issues back into the news and highlighted the importance of creating a robust and scalable solution to the issue of CASS Resolution Pack (CASS RP) maintenance, as well as the role which the CASS RP can play in ensuring general CASS compliance.

CP12/22: Client assets regime

On 6 September 2012, the FSA published CP12/22, a combined Consultation Paper and Discussion Paper on changes to the CASS regime necessary to comply with the segregation and porting requirements of EMIR as well as the wider review of the CASS regime which is currently under way.

Under current CASS rules, the failure of a firm triggers a “primary pooling event”, following which all client money held by that firm is pooled pending distribution.  In an effort to comply with the requirements of Article 48 of EMIR, which requires segregation of client assets so as to facilitate porting, the FSA intends to allow firms to operate multiple legally and operationally separate client money pools and sub-pools.  In the event of insolvency, each pool would be distributed rateably to its particular beneficiaries.  All client money not held in a pool would form part of a general client money pool, in accordance with current CASS rules.

The FSA believes that multiple pools would allow firms to insulate clients from other clients with a greater risk appetite, or from the risks associated with more complex business lines.  As such, clients could be protected from exposure to delays in the return of client money and the potential for shortfalls in the general client money pool.

It is intended that there should be a great amount of flexibility in the way in which the pools are created.  So, for example, a firm could establish pools by reference to a business unit, such as Prime Brokerage.  Alternatively, a clearing member could operate separate pools of client money comprising (i) the margin held for a client in a client account at a CCP, and (ii) the client money held for that client by the clearing member itself.  If the clearing member subsequently became insolvent, the pooling would allow an insolvency practitioner to make the margin held by the clearing member available in order to facilitate porting.

BlackRock Fined for Breaches of CASS Rules

On 11 September 2012, the FSA published a final notice relating to the £9,533,1000 fine it had imposed on BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Ltd for failure to adequately protect client money in the period between October 2006 and March 2010.  This fine included a 30% discount for early settlement by BlackRock.

The specific failings of BlackRock related to the requirement to provide notification and obtain acknowledge of the trust status of client money placed on deposit.  The net result was that an average daily balance of approximately £1.36 billion had been at risk with the banks at which deposits had been made.

Conclusion

It is anticipated that the pooling arrangements proposed within CP12/22 will be finalised early in 2013.  Thereafter, it is expected that there will be a strong demand for segregated pooling from clients.  A rapid and large increase in the number of client money pools implies a degree of cost and administrative burden on firms providing this service due to the fact that they will be required to ensure that the segregation provisions of CASS 7.4 and the record keeping and reconciliation (both internal and external) requirements of CASS 7.6 apply to the general pool and to each sub-pool created.  Given that these requirements also track into a firm’s CASS RP, and the aggressive deadlines which apply to the updating of the information contained within a CASS RP, it is important to implement a robust and scalable solution to the initial form of a CASS RP and ensure that an appropriate amount of resource is committed to its maintenance.

The FSA press release accompanying the publication of the BlackRock fine reiterated that the identification and protection of client money should be at the top of every firm’s agenda.  In this regard, a CASS RP represents both a risk and a benefit to firms.  Risk arises from the fact that a CASS RP provides a convenient snap-shot of the state of a firm’s CASS compliance, which can be requested by the FSA at any time.  As such, in future, it will become far easier for the FSA to identify failings such as those affecting BlackRock and levy fines accordingly.  However, benefits arise if firms view the CASS RP as an internal risk management tool, highlighting areas of weakness or non-compliance with respect to CASS issues.  Being relatively self-contained, the CASS RP regulations are fairly easy to implement and yet provide good protection with respect to both client assets and a firm’s reputation.  In an environment of shrinking budgets, it is tempting to view the CASS RP as being of secondary importance.  However, if the BlackRock affair highlights anything, it is the price that can be paid for failing to heed the repeated warnings of the FSA regarding the importance of client money issues and the need to implement robust procedures with respect to all aspects of the client money process.

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