Conflicts of Interest Policy
Introduction and Purpose
Cell Capital Partners is authorised and regulated by the FCA to provide regulated activities to its clients and investors.
When undertaking its services Cell Capital Partners always acts in the clients’ best interests and puts their interests ahead of its own. Acting for clients may create conflicts between the interests of Cell Capital Partners and its clients and investors or between the interests of different clients and investors.
FCA rules require Cell Capital Partners to manage conflicts of interest fairly, both between itself and its clients and investors and between a client and another client and respective investors. The purpose of this policy is to outline the framework Cell Capital Partners has in place to identify, manage, monitor and review conflicts of interest.
Definition
An actual or potential conflict may arise when, in the exercise of its activities and services, the interests of Cell Capital Partners (including its managers, employees and appointed representatives or any person directly or indirectly linked to them by their control or shareholding) and the interest of its clients and investors, are directly or indirectly in competition, and which could significantly prejudice the client’s and investor’s interests.
Application
This policy applies to all staff which includes permanent and temporary employees, contractors, interns and outsourced business suppliers.
Policy
This section outlines Cell Capital Partners policy for ensuring controls are in place to identify and manage conflicts of interest that may arise in carrying on its business to ensure that all of Cell Capital Partners clients and investors are treated fairly.
Identifying Conflicts of Interest
Cell Capital Partners has procedures to identify situations in which activities carried out by it could constitute conflicts of interest and that could lead to potential risks of damage to it client’s and investor’s interests. To identify them, Cell Capital Partners takes into account the activities it is authorised to carry out as well as those carried out on its behalf by delegates, sub-delegates, external valuers or other counterparties and service providers.
Cell Capital Partners takes all reasonable steps to identify conflicts of interest that arise in the course of its business between:
- Cell Capital Partners, including its managers, employees or any person directly or indirectly linked to it by control, and the duty that Cell Capital Partners owes to its clients and investors; and
- two or more clients or investors.
For the purpose of identifying the types of conflicts of interest that arise in the course of providing its services, Cell Capital Partners takes into account whether it, its managers, employees, other relevant person or a person directly or indirectly linked by way of control:
- is likely to make a financial gain, or avoid a financial loss, at the expense of a client or investor;
- has an interest in the outcome of a service or an activity provided to the client or investors which differs from the client’s or investor’s interest in that outcome;
- has a financial or other incentive to favour a client or group of clients or investors, over the interests of another client or investor.
- carries out the same activities for the client and for another client; or
- receives an inducement from a third party in the form of monies, goods or services other than the standard commission or fee for that service.
Overview of circumstances which may give rise to Conflicts
Examples of areas where potential conflicts of interest could arise include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Inducements – Cell Capital Partners, could offer or receive inducements in respect of certain services, which could incentivise the recipients of the inducement to not act in the client’s best interests.
- Information Flows - Cell Capital Partners may have access to material non-public information through the ordinary course of their business activities that could be used to benefit Cell Capital Partners, employees or clients at the expense of other clients (e.g. employees could use knowledge of client orders to front run proprietary trading activities).
- Order Handling - Client orders could be handled in a manner that may benefit Cell Capital Partners, employees or one client at the expense of other clients (e.g. the execution of one client’s orders could be given preference over another client’s orders).
- Personal Account (PA) Dealing – Employees could deal on their own account to the disadvantage of clients (e.g. they could front run client orders with their own PA dealing activities).
- Outside Business Interests - Employees could receive material non-public information through outside business interests, such as directorships, which they could use to gain an advantage or avoid a loss.
- Remuneration – Employees could be incentivised to encourage inappropriate trading which has no discernible benefit for clients (e.g. advising a client to churn their trades) in order to increase their commission.
- Investment Research - The production and/or distribution of investment research by Cell Capital Partners could be used to the advantage of Cell Capital Partners or some clients over other clients (e.g. the investment research could be used internally before being circulated to clients).
- Side Letters – Preferential terms to one investor over another;
- Redemptions – Conflicts of interest between those redeeming and those retaining shares;
- Supervision – Failure to segregate, within its own operating environment, tasks and responsibilities which may be regarded as incompatible with each other or which may potentially generate systematic conflicts of interest.
Employee Duties and Responsibilities
All employees are responsible for ensuring that they are compliant with this policy which includes:
- Remaining vigilant to potential conflicts of interest arising;
- Identifying and notifying the Compliance Officer of potential or actual conflicts of interest;
- Adhering to operating policies and procedures that relate to conflicts management such as: PA dealing; gifts and hospitality; outside business interests; inside information notification etc;
- Confirming compliance with relevant conflict policies through Cell Capital Partners periodic affirmations.
Ownership and Implementation
The Compliance Officer is the owner of this document and is responsible for its content and implementation, oversight of the application of the policy and assisting employees with the identification and management of conflicts of interest. The Compliance Officer will ensure that the policy is regularly tested and updated where necessary.
Monitoring and Management of Conflicts
Cell Capital Partners has put in place procedures to ensure that we can effectively identify and manage conflicts of interest where there is a material risk of damage or loss to one or more clients, these include:
- Client take-on procedures to obtain sufficient information in order to undertake the appropriate conflicts checks prior to formal engagement.
- Senior Management are required to regularly consider whether all potential conflicts have been identified and where a conflict is identified ensure that either:
- Employee disclosure requirement regarding external business interests, personal account transactions and gifts.
Procedures
The following outlines the procedures to be followed and measures to be adopted in order to manage conflicts of interest.
Identification
Cell Capital Partners has client and investor take-on procedures which enable senior management to consider and manage conflicts of interest at the beginning of the relationship. Cell Capital Partners has also implemented a process to ensure that senior management oversee the delivery of all activities to ensure that there are no additional conflicts between clients, investors and Cell Capital Partners.
Notification
If an employee suspects that a conflict has occurred in relation to an ongoing client, the employee should notify Compliance immediately to ensure that potential and actual conflicts of interest can be identified and managed.
Identification of conflicts is the responsibility of all employees at Cell Capital Partners. All employees are made aware of their responsibilities to identify situations which give rise to a conflict or which might give rise to a conflict under Cell Capital Partners conflict of interest policy.
In the event that an employee is unsure as to whether a situation represents a potential conflict of interest or not, the employee is required to raise the issue immediately with the Compliance Officer.
Assessment
Senior Management and Compliance will assess all conflicts of interest situations. Such assessment shall include (but not limited) assessing the following:
- Whether the situation represents an actual or potential conflict of interest;
- How the conflict of interest can be appropriately managed;
- The materiality of the conflict of interest;
- Whether the conflict of interest requires immediate notification to senior management for further assessment;
- Whether it is necessary to disclose the conflict of interest to the clients to agree a course of action with the client(s) or resolve the conflict via another route.
Resolution
Cell Capital Partners will take the necessary actions to resolve and manage actual or potential conflicts of interest. This may include (but is not limited to):
- Managing the situation so as to prevent the conflict of interest arising;
- Managing the situation so as to ensure the interests of Cell Capital Partners or its employees are not permitted to disadvantage or lead to a loss for the client(s);
- Notifying the conflict of interest to the client(s) so that either a satisfactory course of action may be decided upon or the client may elect not to use the service insofar as there is a conflict.
Reporting/Record Keeping
The Compliance Officer will maintain a Conflicts of Interest Register of all circumstances which constitute or may give rise to a conflict of interest entailing a material risk of damage to the interests of clients.
The Conflicts of Interest Register will be used to summarise potential or actual conflicts of interest which may arise or have arisen and the controls, persons involved, owner, policies and procedures in place to manage these conflicts – including client disclosures and subsequent instructions.
Senior Management Review
Compliance will provide Senior Management on a frequent basis, and at least annually, written reports on any conflicts of interest / potential conflicts of interest that may arise including details of the situation giving rise to the conflict or potential conflict, the assessment analysis and the measures taken to mitigate the conflicts.
Periodically (no less than annual) senior management shall analyse the conflicts that have arisen as well as potential conflicts of interest and review the systems and controls that are in place for preventing and mitigating the conflicts of interest in order to ensure that they continue to be effective and relevant for dealing with conflicts of interest situations.
RISK WARNINGS FOR HIGH-RISK FINANCIAL PROMOTIONS
Risk Summary
Estimated Reading Time: 2 mins Due to potential losses, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) considers this investment to be very complex and high risk. What are the key risks?
You could lose all the money you invest
- If the business offering this investment fails, there is a high risk that you will lose all your money. Businesses like this often fail as they usually use risky investment strategies
- Advertised rates of return aren’t guaranteed. This is not a savings account. If the issuer doesn’t pay you back as agreed, you could earn less money than expected or nothing at all. A higher advertised rate of return means a higher risk of losing your money. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is
You are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong
- Protection from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) does not cover poor investment performance. If you have a complaint against an FCA- regulated firm, FOS may be able to consider it. Learn more about FOS protection here
You are unlikely to get your money back quickly
- This type of business could face cash-flow problems that delay payments to investors. It could also fail altogether and beunable to repay any of the money owed to you
- You are unlikely to be able to cash in your investment early by selling your investment. In the rare circumstances where it is possible to sell your investment in a ‘secondary market’, you may not find a buyer at the price you are willing to sell
- You may have to pay exit fees or additional charges to take any money out of your investment early
This is a complex investment
- This kind of investment has a complex structure based on other risky investments, which makes it difficult for the investor to know where their money is going
- This makes it difficult to predict how risky the investment is, but it will most likely be high
- You may wish to get financial advice before deciding to invest
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
- Putting all your money into a single business or type of investment for example, is risky
- A good rule of thumb is not to invest more than 10% of your money in high-risk investments
If you are interested in learning more about how to protect yourself, visit the FCA’s website here