Financial services regulation reaches further into ordinary legal work than most solicitors expect. Communicating about an investment, arranging a loan for a client, or chasing a debt can all engage rules designed for the financial sector — and the consequences of getting it wrong include criminal liability and unenforceable agreements. Knowing where the lines fall, and which exemptions keep routine practice lawful, is part of working safely day to day.
This lesson walks you through both regimes from the ground up and shows you how solicitors stay within them.
- Overview — the two regimes that catch legal work and the statutes behind them.
- The Financial Promotion Prohibition — the four elements of a breach and the ways out.
- Types of Communication and Exemptions — real-time versus non-real-time, solicited versus unsolicited, and the one-off exemption.
- Consequences of an Unlawful Financial Promotion — criminal liability, unenforceability, and the due diligence defence.
- Regulated and Exempt Credit Agreements — what counts as a regulated agreement and who falls outside it.
- Regulated Consumer Credit Activities — the credit activities solicitors most often carry on.
- The Part XX Exemption for Solicitors — how firms do this work without FCA authorisation, and the conditions involved.
- Consequences of Unauthorised Consumer Credit Activity — unenforceable loans and the criminal offence of acting without authorisation.