SERV 1.1 Application and Purpose

This special guide is for service companies. Its purpose is to help service companies find their way around the Handbook by setting out which parts of it apply to them.

Service companies are firms whose regulated activities are restricted to making arrangements with a view to transactions in investments and agreeing to carry on that regulated activity. They are, in the main, technology companies who provide order routing, post-trade processing, or other services to market participants which assist them to deal in investments or arrange (bring about) deals in investments among themselves. A light-touch regulatory regime applies to service companies as set out in this Special guide.