Hello! I am interested in creating an online financial advisory service. I am normally based in Russia but think it would be better for the site if it showed the London address instead of the St-Petersburg, Russia. I wonder if you have experience registering a company in UK for the internet business? I have made a search and found the following offers: companiesmadesimple. com/company-formation-name-search.html smallfirmsservices. com /services/company-formation.aspx companyformations247.co. uk/ blueskyformations.co. uk/company-formations I wonder what you think of them? Thanks Dia
I knwo that it is necessary to register with FSA in Uk to perform financial advisory services - I wonder if anyone has experience registering with them?
There are hundreds of websites that can form your Ltd (limited liability) company online for you in minutes. They are all the same and differ mainly only on price and other services they offer e.g. registered address, mail forwarding etc. An alternative is to contact an accountant who is experienced in your type of business and they can set up the company for you. Getting FSA authorization is a different matter and may require you to have one or more authorized persons (AP) in order to qualify, minimum capital requirements etc. On the other hand, you may be exempt from FSA authorization, again depending on the type of activity you plan to undertake. The best source of information is actually the FSA handbook on the FSA website. Depending on which area you need authorization for there will be different criteria. You can browse a tailored version of the handbook for the area you are interested in: http://fsahandbook.info/FSA/select-handbook/tailored It is the definitive information you are looking for.
Thank you very much for your detailed reply. I plan to provide technical analysis service. Providing the analysis for major pairs and also providing periodical trade recommendations with precise entry and exit levels. I am not sure how to classify it according to FSA. I see there are mainly the companies which manage the client's funds and the like - did you see any tailored handbook for pure information-based services? Thanks again for your helpful answer!
Maybe if I remove trade recommendations the service can be made exempt from the necessity to be registered with the FSA?
It's possible you can become exempt depending on your set up but I'm not the right person to advise you on that. You can try e-mailing the FSA directly in the first instance. They used to be quite helpful in answering questions. An alternative to becoming FSA authorized directly is to use the service of an FSA umbrella company. Do a search for that and you should get some results. There's very little more I can tell you. Ultimately you may need to consult a company specializing in FSA compliance (search: FSA compliance) or lawyers or accountants or all of the above. Setting up the limited company with a UK registered address should be straight forward though.
Thanks for your helpful comments) I called FSA and it looks like a lot of the services which provide advice on investments would need to be regulated by them. They recommended the Association of Professional Compliance Consultants - apcc.org. uk . I wonder if anyone has experience dealign with them? Besides that I have another question - what if I use fake UK address for the initial time of running my company. I understand simple online companies are not so rigidly required to be fully sound in the regard to all details about their whereabouts right? IF I JUST USE FAKE LONDON ADREESS and when I have enough orders just proceed to registering a company? Or maybe use a fake USA New York agrees for the time being? Or another country in Europe ? Just not Russia......I mean I am tryign to run a fully internet based business with potentially international reach so why shoudl I be regulated by anyone?)
Setting up the company is relatively easy but you will need to provide your passport to complete the process. You can get your FSA Securities and Derivatives License. 12 years ago when I was thinking of doing it, it was like a 4 hour exam of 1000 multiple choice questions. Which sounds easy but the questions where actually really hard. You'll need to invest a lot of study time if you want to pass it. You can also do it as a part time course with actual tutoring which in hindsight would probably be best. I'm not sure if the format has changed since then. The securities component and the derivatives component are separate but I was planning to do both. Runningbear
Thank you fro your reply, Runningbear . I appreciate it!) I am sure this kind of the test and preparation to it would take a lot of the resources - both in terms of money and time and effort spent...I wonder if you think there are other countries in European Union which offer as easy process of setting up a company but which are not so heavily regulated by the financial watchdog as those in UK by FSA? THANKS A LOT FOR YOUR TIME!