What is a professional client?
A professional client is deemed capable of making his or her own investment decisions, and understanding the risks involved, with greater autonomy than retail clients. This means they can access favourable rates and benefits but will waive some FCA protections afforded to retail clients, including the services of the Financial Ombudsman.
What are the risks?
You will waive some FCA protections as a professional client, such as:
- We can use more sophisticated language when talking to professional clients.
- We may assume your level of knowledge and experience when assessing whether our products are appropriate for you.
- When executing your orders, we owe you a duty of best execution. For retail clients we must prioritise overall prices and cost of a transaction when giving best execution. As a professional client, we may prioritise other factors in giving best execution, such as speed and likelihood of execution if we determine they are equally or more important than overall price. In practice, we will not change the way we execute your orders.
How do I become a professional client?
To qualify as professional, you need to meet certain criteria related to your trading history, investment portfolio, and/or your employment history.
Other questions
Can I change my mind if I no longer want to be classified as professional?
Yes, you can contact us if you no longer want to be classified this way and we will close your account.
Will this change apply to all my accounts?
Yes, this categorisation will apply to all your One Knightsbridge Capital accounts.
What are the criteria to qualify for a professional Client?
You’ll need to meet two out of the following three criteria in order to qualify as a professional client:
- Professional experience
You must have worked in the financial sector in a professional position (which requires knowledge of the investments being made within your investments account) for at least one year. - Investment portfolio
You are required to have a ‘financial instrument portfolio’ (defined as cash deposits and financial instruments) of €500,000 or more. Acceptable instruments include cash, stock portfolios, stocks and shares ISAs, trading accounts, mutual funds, and SIPPs. Managed company pensions, non-tradeable assets, property, luxury cars, or physical gold are not acceptable. - Trading experience
You must have placed 40 trades of significant size in the last year. Significant size is £10,000 notional for equity trades and £50,000 for everything else.
