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Polar Capital Complaints Handling Policy

January 2024

Under European law, the Polar Capital Group (hereafter “Polar Capital”) including its branches within the European Union, is required to have written procedures in place for the prompt, fair and consistent handling of complaints received by eligible complainants. Polar Capital adhere to investigating such complaints in a competent, diligent and impartial manner. Polar Capital have adopted these complaints handling policy in the context of managing undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (“UCITS”) and alternative investment funds (“AIFs”).

If you have cause to complain to Polar Capital about any of our UCITS, SICAVs, managed Investment Trusts or Hedge Funds, please contact Polar Capital Investor Relations:

Post:

Head of Client Services, Polar Capital, 16 Palace Street, London SW1E 5JD

Our Commitment

Complaint recieved

Polar Capital will endeavour to fully resolve the complaint within five business days

Where your complaint cannot be solved within five business days, an acknowledgement letter will be sent to you

Polar Capital will have eight weeks to investigate your complaint

Upon receipt of your complaint we will endeavour to fully resolve the complaint within five business days. Where your complaint cannot be resolved within this time period, an acknowledgment letter will be sent to you. Within four weeks of receipt of your complaint, we will send either a full response or a further holding response.

If your complaint has still not been resolved within eight weeks of receipt, we will send you a letter explaining the reasons for the further delay, along with details of your right to refer the complaint to the relevant financial services ombudsman.

If you are unhappy with the processing of your complaint or with our response, then you can contact the relevant financial services ombudsman in the country of the company’s office, free of charge:

Disclaimer:  Please note that breaching this policy could result in a breach of the Conduct Rules. Please be mindful that this could have serious implications on your regulatory record, and you must make Compliance aware of any suspected breaches as soon as you become aware of them. A copy of the Conduct Rules can be found in the Employee Manual. 

Polar Capital LLP (United Kingdom)

The Financial Ombudsman Service

Exchange Tower

London E14 9SR

Polar Capital (Europe) Spain Branch

CNMV
Servicio de Reclamaciones de la Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV)

Calle Edison 4, 28006 Madrid

Polar Capital (Europe) SAS (France)

Médiateur de l’AMF
Autorité des marches financiers

17 Place de la Bourse
75082 Paris Cedex 02

Handling Complaints

Under DISP Chapter 1.1.3, any firm which conducts business with “eligible complainants” is required to have in place internal procedures for the proper handling of complaints. An eligible complainant is, broadly, someone who would fall within the definition of a Retail Client and with whom a regulated firm conducts business. Professional Clients and Eligible Counterparties (i.e. our Investor base) are expressly exempt from the definition of an eligible complainant. Also, Collective Investment Schemes are by definition Professional Clients.

Under Rule 1.1.3, a firm which does not conduct business with eligible complainants and has no likelihood of doing so is exempt from the FCA complaints handling requirements, but only provided it notifies the FCA in writing of this fact in accordance with DISP 1.1.12. An annual notification is not required as long as the firm remains exempt.

Notwithstanding the above, as a matter of good business practice and management, we will maintain general complaint handling procedures and all relevant employees must be aware of these procedures and act in accordance with them.

Similar to DISP, under Article 322-71-1 the AMF require firms to maintain operational, efficient and transparent procedures to ensure complaints are processed reasonably and rapidly. The AMF dictate that Polar must not charge complainants for this function and must ensure record keeping is robust. Under Article 19, PRIIPs Regulation (EU) 1286/2014, manufacturers of a packaged retail and insurance-based product, which includes EU-based UCITS funds, (‘PRIIPs’) are required to provide retail investors with an effective way of submitting complaints to the PRIIPs manufacturer and to respond to a retail investor who has made a compliant in a timely and proper manner. PRIIPs manufacturers must provide such redress procedures to retail investors on a cross border basis, regardless of whether they are based in another EU member state to the complainant or outside of the EU altogether.

Procedures

To enable fair, prompt and effective handling of complaints:

All oral or written expressions of dissatisfaction, no matter how trivial, about any person employed by the Company or any aspect of our activities must be reported to the Compliance Officer.

The Compliance Officer shall promptly determine the appropriate action, if any, for dealing with the complaint. In any event, all complaints, unless deemed trivial by the Compliance Officer, will nevertheless be logged on a Complaints Form (See Compliance Forms). Any relevant correspondence should be kept with the Complaints form on the Complaints File.

The Compliance Officer will decide whether a complaint is of such significance that it warrants immediate reporting to the Board. In any event, all logged complaints should be reported to the Board in writing at each Board meeting.

Notwithstanding the above, any complaint not resolved within 2 months from the date of receipt, must be reported to the Board. Annex A details group-wide complaints handling standards. 

MIFID II Requirement

MIFID II requires firms to have comprehensive product governance including an inception to closure product process that ensures that products achieve their objectives including investments, process and investors. This is set out within the new FCA Product Governance Sourcebook (PROD).

Under MiFID II complaints should be monitored on a rolling 12-month basis and classified according to the FCA definition. As part of Polar Capital’s Product Governance process, it has developed an Issues and Complaints Handling procedure whereby there is oversight and monitoring of its products complaints on an ongoing basis with a formal review of any trends within the quarterly product governance meetings. 

Complaints Policy