B.C.P. Asset Management Designated Activity Company

BACKGROUND The Firm is authorised under the MiFID Regulations to receive and transmit orders and to provide portfolio management and investment advice (the “Investment Services”). The Firm’s principal Investment Service is the manufacture and distribution of structured investment products. These products are tailored to either Retail or Professional investors with clients ranging from private individuals, pension funds, corporate entities and credit unions. The products are mainly sold to clients through the Firm’s agency network of investment intermediaries. In November 2014, the Central Bank conducted an on-site inspection focusing on the Firm’s assessment of clients who elected to be treated as Professional clients at the point in time when they were taken on by the Firm. The inspection was conducted on a sample of files from the Firm’s total of fifty MiFID Professional clients - nine of which had opted-up from Retail to Professional status. All nine were included in the sample. Each of the nine clients had opted up for the purposes of investing in an investment product structured as a fixed income plan (the “Plan”) which was for Professional clients only. The Plan’s stipulations included a minimum investment of €100,000 and a term of either 3 or 5 years. Eight of the nine client who invested in the Plan were sourced through the Firm’s agency network of investment intermediaries. This inspection identified a number of issues in respect of the Firm’s compliance with the client categorisation requirements provided for under the MiFID Regulations, prompting an Enforcement investigation into those issues.