Manchester CMC firm loses authorisation
The FCA has cancelled the Part 4A permissions of Manchester-based claims management company Domum Ltd (FRN 831104) after concluding that it was carrying on no regulated activity.
The firm had been registered as Domum since March 2020.
It had previously been registered as Reclaim-Plan.com since April 2019 and began trading under the name Reclaim Plan from June 2020, according to the FCA register.
Companies House records shows that the Manchester business Reclaim Plan was dissolved in March this year, after being incorporated in November 2022. Its business was listed as “activities of call centres”.
The application to strike the company off the register was made in December 2023.
Before becoming under the regulation of the FCA, Reclaim Plan had been regulated by the Claims Management Regulator between 2013 and 2019.
The FCA acted after noting that the firm failed to pay periodic fees and levies owed to the Authority.
In particular the business failed to pay an invoice dated 12 October 2021 for periodic fees and levies of £1,239.20 which had been due for payment by 10 January 2022; and an invoice dated 21 September 2022 for periodic fees and levies of £643.55 which had been due for payment by 21 October 2022.
On 14 June this year the FCA gave the firm notice that its permissions would be cancelled.
Getting no response the FCA informed the firm that its permissions would be cancelled on 6 August, which has now happened.
In February the FCA looked at claims management companies and wrote to a small sample of 26 about unregulated work.
It reported that some of the sample of firms had:
- Undertaken very little, or no regulated claims management activity. Some firms in the sample applied to cancel their FCA permissions following the FCA’s contact, and around 70% have stopped unregulated claims activity.
- Inadequate systems and controls in place to differentiate between regulated and unregulated claims activity.
- Charged significantly higher fees for unregulated claims activity. Although the FCA doesn’t have regulatory oversight of these activities, it considers that firms will want to satisfy themselves on whether this is appropriate.
- Non-compliant financial promotions.