FCA Compliance Specialist Consultants for UK Regulated Firms
We help firms get authorised by the FCA (and PRA), and then help them meet their obligations year after year: governance and SMCR reviews, AML and MLRO support, compliance audits and ongoing retainer support. Our work is overseen by our Founder Lee Werrell, Chartered FCSI, and delivered with our team of senior associate consultants. We have been doing it since 2000.
Where is your firm now?
Preparing to apply
New authorisation or registration, a variation of permission, or a change in control.
FCA and PRA authorisationsAuthorised, and want independent assurance
Reviews that test what really happens in your firm, not just what your documents say.
Governance and SMCR reviewsAML reviews and MLRO support
Looking for senior support every month
Advisory hours, regulatory updates and compliance templates, from £595 a month plus VAT.
Compliance retainersHow we help
Every engagement starts with your permissions, your business model and your risk profile, and is sized to fit them.
FCA and PRA authorisations
Part 4A permissions, payment and e-money authorisation or registration, consumer credit, cryptoasset registration, variation of permission and change in control. We prepare the application, business plan and supporting policies, and help you answer the regulator’s questions through to a decision.
Governance and SMCR reviews
An independent test of how your firm is really run: Statements of Responsibilities, board and committee challenge, management information, compliance monitoring and Consumer Duty oversight. You receive a RAG-rated action plan your board can act on.
AML reviews and MLRO support
Independent reviews of your business-wide risk assessment, customer due diligence, monitoring and suspicious activity reporting. We support an in-house MLRO, provide interim cover, or appoint a named senior associate as your MLRO.
Compliance audits and monitoring
A benchmark audit of your compliance framework against current FCA requirements, and a risk-based annual monitoring plan designed around your business, so you can show your controls are tested and working.
Compliance retainers
Bronze, Silver and Gold retainers give you senior advice when you need it, regular regulatory updates and a library of compliance templates, from £595 a month plus VAT.
Compliance training
Training tailored to your firm and to seniority, covering SMCR, conduct risk, culture and governance, AML and financial crime. Delivered in person or virtually, with records you can use as regulatory evidence.
We also provide independent complaint assessment and management, suitability file checks, and support for firms facing a section 166 skilled person review.
How we work
Engage, Execute, Embed: the same three stages on every piece of work, whatever its size.
Engage
We learn how your business actually works, agree the scope with you and give you a fixed-fee proposal, net of VAT, before any work begins.
Execute
Senior consultants do the work alongside your team, to an agreed timetable, and tell you plainly what a supervisor would see.
Embed
We hand over documents, controls and management information your people understand and own, so the improvement lasts after we step back.
Who you will work with
Compliance Consultant was founded by Lee Werrell, who has more than 25 years’ experience of UK financial services regulation. Lee oversees every engagement, and the work is delivered with a stable of senior associate consultants chosen for the sector and the task. You deal with people who understand how supervisors think, not with junior staff working through a checklist.
We work with FCA-regulated small and medium-sized firms: mortgage and general insurance intermediaries, consumer credit firms, payment and e-money institutions, investment managers, claims management companies, fintech firms and cryptoasset businesses.
Questions firms ask us
Is Compliance Consultant authorised by the FCA?
No. We advise FCA-regulated firms and firms applying for authorisation. We are not ourselves authorised by the FCA, and we do not give regulated advice to consumers. Our role is to help your firm meet its own regulatory obligations.
Can you guarantee our application will be approved?
No one can: the decision rests with the regulator. What we do is prepare an application that shows clearly how your firm meets the threshold conditions, supported by a coherent business plan and policies, and help you answer the regulator’s questions promptly and accurately.
Do you help with complaint handling?
Yes. We assess complaints against the FCA’s DISP rules, draft final responses, calculate redress and, if you want us to, manage complaints from start to finish, including those referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service. We also carry out root cause analysis so the same complaints stop recurring.
What are suitability file checks?
Independent reviews of advice files against FCA suitability requirements and Consumer Duty expectations. Each check produces a scored, structured report you can use for training and competence oversight, management information, internal audit or remediation.
Do you support cryptoasset businesses?
Yes. We help cryptoasset firms prepare for and apply for FCA registration under the Money Laundering Regulations: gap analysis, business-wide risk assessment, policies and procedures, and an application that explains your business model and controls clearly.
Do you help with funeral plan authorisation?
Yes. We support funeral plan providers through FCA authorisation, including the regulatory business plan, governance, systems and controls, financial promotions and the obligations that continue after authorisation.
How much do you charge?
Project work is quoted as a fixed fee after a scoping call, so you know the full cost before we start. Compliance retainers start at £595 a month. All our fees are quoted net of VAT.
How long have you been a compliance consultancy?
Since 2000. Over that time we have supported firms of every size with FCA authorisations, governance frameworks, policy and procedure reviews, complaint management, suitability assessments and wider governance, risk and compliance projects.
Where are you based?
Our London office is at 110 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4AY, and our registered office is in Gosport, Hampshire. We work with firms throughout the UK and internationally, remotely or on site.
Free resources
Weekly newsletter
A weekly round-up of regulatory developments for FCA-regulated firms, with practical guidance on what they mean for you.
Subscribe to the newsletterBrochures to download
- Introduction to Compliance Consultant
- FCA enforcement
- Financial crime review service
- Independent complaints assessment
- Benchmarking and annual compliance audit examples
- Section 166 assistance service
- Vulnerable customers
- Investment due diligence
- Online platform training courses
- Digital document and monitoring plan management
Talk to us about your firm
Book a free, no-obligation discovery call. We will tell you plainly what we see and what we would do first.
UK 0800 689 0190 | International 020 8243 8620 | info@complianceconsultant.org
LinkedIn | Facebook | X (Twitter) | Instagram | YouTube | Pinterest
Making Compliance Work
Compliance Consultant and Compliance Doctor are trading styles of UK Compliance Consultant Limited, Companies House number 14805896.
How we publish reviews. Reviews shown on this website are drawn from Google, Yell and Trustindex by an automated widget. We do not write, commission or edit reviews, and we do not offer incentives for reviews. We do not remove or hide reviews because they are negative. We remove a review from display only if it is not a genuine account of dealing with us (for example spam, test entries or content unrelated to our services), and we record the reason. If you believe a review shown here is not genuine, please email info@complianceconsultant.org and we will investigate.
