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COBS 10A.7 Record keeping and retention periods for appropriateness records

COBS 10A.7.1G

A firm is required to keep orderly records of its business and internal organisation, including all services and transactions undertaken by it. The records may be expected to include the client information a firm obtains to assess appropriateness and should be adequate to indicate what the assessment was.

Record keeping: MiFID business

COBS 10A.7.2UK

356(2) Investment firms shall maintain records of the appropriateness assessments undertaken which shall include the following:

  1. (a) the result of the appropriateness assessment;

  2. (b) any warning given to the client where the investment service or product purchase was assessed as potentially inappropriate for the client, whether the client asked to proceed with the transaction despite the warning and, where applicable, whether the firm accepted the client’s request to proceed with the transaction;

  3. (c) any warning given to the client where the client did not provide sufficient information to enable the firm to undertake an appropriateness assessment, whether the client asked to proceed with the transaction despite this warning and, where applicable, whether the firm accepted the client’s request to proceed with the transaction.

[Note: article 56(2) of the MiFID Org Regulation]

Record keeping: insurance-based investment products

COBS 10A.7.2AR
  1. (1)

    4Without prejudice to the application the General data protection regulation, a firm must maintain records of the assessment of appropriateness undertaken in accordance with COBS 10A.2.1R and COBS 10A.2.2R in relation to an insurance-based investment product.

  2. (2)

    The records maintained under (1) must include the information obtained from the client and any documents agreed with the client, including documents that set out the rights of the parties and the other terms on which the firm will provide services to the client.

  3. (3)

    The records in (1) must be retained for at least the duration of the relationship between the firm and the client.

  4. (4)

    The record in (1) must also include the following:

    1. (a)

      the result of the appropriateness assessment;

    2. (b)

      any warning given to the client where the insurance-based investment product was assessed as potentially inappropriate for the client, whether the client asked to proceed with concluding the policy despite the warning and, where applicable, whether the firm accepted the client’s request to proceed with concluding the policy;

    3. (c)

      any warning given to the client where the client did not provide sufficient information to enable the firm to assess the appropriateness of the insurance-based investment product, whether the client asked to proceed with concluding the policy despite the warning and, where applicable, whether the firm accepted the client’s request to proceed with concluding the policy.

[Note: article 19(1) and (3) of the IDD Regulation]

Record keeping: MiFID business and insurance-based investment products

COBS 10A.7.3G

1A firm should refer to SYSC 3.3 (for insurers and managing agents) and2 SYSC 9 (for other firms)2 for its obligations in relation to record keeping. These provisions require2 records kept for the purposes of this chapter to be retained for a period of at least five years.