Terms of Business

TERMS OF BUSINESS OF FINANCE ONE LTD

 

These terms of business set out the basis on which Finance One Ltd. will provide business services to you.
Please take a few minutes to read through these and if you have any questions, we will be happy to answer them.

The full name, address and contact details of the firm is set out on the bottom of this document.

❖ Finance One Ltd. is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland as an Investment Business Firm under the Investment Intermediaries Act, 1995 (as amended), as an Insurance Intermediary under The European Communities (Insurance Distribution) Regulations, 2018, and as a Mortgage Intermediary under Consumer Credit Act, 1995 (as amended), and under the Mortgage Consumer Credit Agreements regulations 2016. Finance One Ltd. is also authorised under Part V of the Central Bank Act, 1997 (as amended by the Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement Act, 2013) for the provision of debt management services. Our firm is also authorised as a Deposit Broker. Copies of our authorisations are available on request. You can also check the firm’s current authorised status by searching the authorised financial services providers on http://registers.centralbank.ie

❖ The firm is subject to the Central Bank’s Consumer Protection Code 2012, the Minimum Competency Code 2011, The Handbook of Prudential Requirements for Investment Intermediaries 2014, Fitness & Probity Standards 2011 which offer protection to consumers – these can be found on the Central Bank’s website www.centralbank.ie

❖ Finance One Ltd. provides advice on a fair & personal analysis basis in relation to Bank Deposits, Insurance Policies, Tracker Bonds, Investments, Pensions, PRSAs and Mortgages. This means we conduct broad based research across the market to find the most suitable product for you irrespective of whether or not we hold an agency with particular providers. Fair analysis of the market means that our firm provides its services on the basis of a sufficiently large number of contracts and product producers available on the market to enable our firm to make a recommendation, in accordance with professional criteria, regarding which contract  would be adequate to meet our client’s consumer needs. We receive and transmit orders from you for submission to the product providers with which we hold an agency – a list of these product providers is available on request.

❖ Sustainability Factors – Investment/IBIPS/Pension Advice
When providing advice, Finance One considers the adverse impact of investment decisions on sustainability. As part of our research and assessment of products, we will examine the Product Providers literature to compare financial products and to make informed investment decisions about environmental, social & governance (ESG) products. Finance One will at all times act in the client’s best interests and keep clients informed accordingly. The consideration of sustainability risks can impact on the returns of financial products.

❖ Finance One Ltd. may receive commission and other remuneration from financial institutions with which it arranges deposits, housing loans and other financial products for clients, details of which are available on request. We may receive commission on Mortgages at a rate of up to 1% of the amount borrowed. We may receive regular renewal commissions while your products remain in-force, and these contribute to the costs of our ongoing administration services which we provide to you. The firm may accept additional commissions and remuneration from such financial institutions, related to the volume of business we place with a financial institution, or based on a profit sharing agreement. When assessing products, we will consider the different approach taken by product providers in terms of them integrating sustainability risks into their product offering. This will form part of our analysis for choosing a product provider.

❖ Cancellation Rights / Cooling Off Period: A Consumer (as defined by SI No 853 of 2004) has the right to withdraw from an insurance policy (as defined under SI No 853 of 2004) within 14 days of the start date of the policy without penalty and without giving any reason – this is known as the cooling off period. If the contract concerned relates to a life assurance, investment or personal pension plan, the cooling off period is extended to 30 days. The right of withdrawal may be exercised by notice in writing to the firm quoting your policy number. Should this right be exercised the insurance company may charge a pro rata premium for the period you are on cover. You, the client, can cancel your policy by notice in writing at any time. Provided that all reasonable charges pertaining to costs incurred by us have been paid and provided that no incident giving rise to a claim has occurred in the current period of insurance, you will be entitled to a proportionate return of the premium for the un-expired period of insurance unless the policy is on a minimum and deposit basis, and if this is the case, no return will be allowed on the policy and this will be noted on your policy schedule. If you cancel a policy during its first year with an Insurer (outside of the cooling off period) short term rates apply. Insurance companies normally reserve the right to cancel policies at any time by giving appropriate notice to you at your last known address. Please refer to your policy terms & conditions. A cancellation charge may apply. Please note that our administration charge/client services fee is non-refundable in the event of cancellation of your contract.

❖ Commissions payable to the firm in relation to arranging certain life assurance, pension policies and PRSAs are disclosed in a Disclosure Notice provided to you at the point of sale and/or at the cooling off stage and can be found on our website www.financeone.ie.

❖ The firm may charge you a fee for services provided instead of, or in conjunction with, commission and other payments from financial institutions to which we transmit orders on your behalf. If a fee is paid for our services we may offset commission received from product providers against the fee due. The firm currently charges such fees based on a time charge of €200 per hour, plus VAT. The firm will notify you of the fee basis in writing in advance of providing a service. Our clients have the option of dealing with us on a fee only basis for the services we provide.

❖ Finance One Ltd applies a standard fee of €750 on all Financial Plans.

❖ Finance One Ltd applies a standard processing fee of €295 on all Family Home mortgage applications. For mortgage applications for less than €200,000, the firm reserves the right to charge a higher processing fee which will be notified to you in writing in advance of providing any service.

❖ Finance One Ltd applies a standard processing fee of €495 on all Buy to Let investment mortgage applications.

❖ Finance One Ltd receives a commission payment of 1% from each of the mortgage lenders that we act as an Agent for. This payment is subject to a clawback if the original mortgage is redeemed by either a re-finance or cash payment within the first three years. For this reason, Finance One’s mortgage services are provided on the basis that you, our client/s are liable to compensate
the firm for any loss of commission as a result of you not retaining Finance One Ltd to arrange any re-finance within the initial 3 year period.

❖ If you have been referred to us by an entity authorised to provide financial services in the State, we may pay a fee to that regulated entity for that referral.

❖ With your written consent, Finance One Ltd. may refer you to other entities regulated to provide financial services in the State. Finance One Ltd. may receive remuneration in return for such referrals.

❖ It is the policy of Finance One Ltd. to endeavour to avoid, as far as possible, any conflict of interest when providing services to its clients. However, where an unavoidable conflict may arise we will advise you of this in writing before proceeding to provide any service. If you have not been advised on any such conflict you are entitled to assume that none have arisen.

❖ Finance One Ltd. will, if necessary, exercise its legal rights to receive any payments due to it, from clients for services provided by it and to be reimbursed for any value obtained by it for clients arising from payments to it by clients which subsequently default.

❖ You can make a verbal or written complaint to us about any service, which is covered by these Terms of Business, provided by Finance One Ltd. to you. Such complaints can be referred to Mr Conor Sheeran, the Compliance Officer of our firm, who will also be your contact point in relation to the ongoing investigation of your complaint. We will:
• Acknowledge your complaint in writing, within 5 business days of receipt of the complaint.
• Investigate your complaint.
• Provide you with a written update on the progress of the investigation of your complaint at intervals not greater than 20 business days.

  • Attempt to resolve your complaint within 40 business days of having received the complaint; where the 40 business days has elapsed and the complaint is not resolved, we will inform you of the anticipated timeframe within which we hope to resolve the complaint and of your right to refer the matter to the Financial Services & Pensions Ombudsman, as the case may be;
    • Within 5 working days of the completion of our investigation of your complaint, we will advise you of the outcome of the complaint in writing and (if appropriate) explain the terms of any offer or settlement being made.
    We will also inform you of your right to refer the matter to the Financial Services & Pensions Ombudsman, Lincoln House, Lincoln Pl, Dublin 2, D02 VH29, Ph: (01) 567 7000 Email: info@fspo.ie as the case may be.

❖ Finance One Ltd. is a member of the Investor Compensation Scheme which provides compensation to certain ‘eligible investors’ in the event of a firm covered by the scheme being found to be unable to meet its financial obligations to its ‘eligible investors’. Certain professional investors, such as pension funds and professional and institutional clients are not covered by the Scheme.
Compensation payable in relation to the default of a firm covered by the scheme is limited to 90% of the eligible investor’s loss arising from the default of the firm, subject to a maximum compensation of €20,000. The Compensation Fund Certificate is available to view on request.

❖ Finance One Ltd. is also a member Brokers Ireland, the representative body for insurance and financial brokers in Ireland. The firm is also a member of the Brokers Ireland Compensation Fund. Subject to the rules of the scheme the liabilities of its members firms up to a maximum of €100,000 per client (or €250,000 in aggregate) may be discharged by the fund on its behalf if the member firm is unable to do so, where the above detailed Investor Compensation Scheme has failed to adequately compensate any client of the member. Further details are available on request.

❖ Data Protection
Finance One Ltd complies with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 and the Irish Data Protection Act 2018.

Finance One is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We wish to be transparent on how we process your data and show that we are accountable with the GDPR in relation to not only processing your data but ensuring you understand your rights as a client.

The data will be processed only in ways compatible with the purposes for which it was given and as outlined in our Privacy Notice this will be given to all our clients at the time of data collection. We will ensure that this Privacy Notice is easily assessable.

Please refer to our website www.financeone.ie if this medium is not suitable we will ensure you can easily receive a copy by hard copy or by secure mail.

Please contact us on 01-6471200 or by email info@financeone.ie if you have any concerns about your personal data.

We operate to the highest standards of client confidentiality and meet statutory requirements under the Data Protection Acts 1998 and 2003 and the GDPR 2018 Act. Our staff and support service providers will only use your personal information to offer advice on suitable products, arrange transactions for you, process information for other legitimate purpose or as otherwise required by law. For this purpose we may share your contact details and other relevant information with other connected firms with which we have a formal business relationship, for the purposes of providing you with appropriate advice and offering you products and
services which we think may be of interest to you. For these purposes we may contact you by letter, email, SMS text, or telephone.

You have the right to ask us not to send marketing information to you at any time.

❖ CONSUMER INSURANCE CONTRACTS ACT 2019
Following the commencement of the Consumer Insurance Contract Act 2019 which was implemented to protect consumers. There is important information that you should be aware of and we are bringing to your attention. There are obligations on you as the consumer and duties that you must fulfil at the various stages of the process of arranging and renewing your Insurance policy.
So please read the following information very carefully and if you have any questions please ask a member of our staff.

Pre-Contract Stage

Before a contract of insurance is entered into, you as the consumer need to understand the following:

• If an insurer asks a specific question, it must be presumed the matter to which it relates is material to the risk undertaken by the insurer or the calculation of the premium by that insurer, or both.
• You as the consumer are under a duty to answer all the questions posed by the insurer honestly and with reasonable care. We are advising you that this is extremely important to adhere to.

New Business & Renewal:

You may cancel a contract of insurance, by giving notice in writing to the insurer, within 14 working days after the date you were informed that the contract is concluded. This does not affect the notice periods already provided under European Union (Insurance and Reinsurance) Regulations 2015 ( S.I. No. 485 of 2015 ) or the European Communities (Distance Marketing of Consumer
Financial Services) Regulations 2004 ( S.I. No. 853 of 2004 ) which is 30 days in respect of life policies, irrespective of whether the sale took place on a non-face to face basis, and 14 days in respect of general policies and only on sales that took place on a non-face to face basis (distance sales).

The giving of notice of cancellation by you will have the effect of releasing you from any further obligation arising from the contract of insurance. The insurer cannot impose any costs on you other than the cost of the premium for the period of cover.
This right to cancel does not apply where, in respect of life insurance the contract is for a duration of six months or less, or in respect of general insurance, the duration of the contract is less than one month.

You are under a duty to pay your premium within a reasonable time, or otherwise in accordance with the terms of the contract of insurance.

A court of competent jurisdiction can reduce the pay-out to you if you are in breach of your duties under the Act, in proportion to the breach involved.

An insurer may refuse a claim made by you under a contract of insurance where there is a change in the risk insured, including as described in an “alteration of risk” clause, and the circumstances have so changed that it has effectively changed the risk to one which the insurer has not agreed to cover.

Any clause in a contract of insurance that refers to a “material change” will be interpreted as being a change that takes the risk outside what was in the reasonable contemplation of the both you and the insurer when the contract was concluded.

You must cooperate with the insurer in an investigation of insured events including responding to reasonable requests for information in an honest and reasonably careful manner and must notify the insurer of the occurrence of an insured event in a reasonable time.

You must notify the insurer of a claim within a reasonable time, or otherwise in accordance with the terms of the contract of insurance.

If you become aware after a claim is made of information that would either support or prejudice the claim, you are under a duty to disclose it. (The insurer is under the  same duty).

If you make a false or misleading claim in any material respect (and know it to be false or misleading or consciously disregards whether it is) the insurer is entitled to refuse to pay and to terminate the contract.

Where an insurer becomes aware that a consumer has made a fraudulent claim, they may notify the consumer advising that they are voiding the contract of insurance, and it will be treated as being terminated from the date of the submission of the fraudulent claim. The insurer may refuse all liability in respect of any claim made after the date of the fraudulent act, and the insurer is under no obligation to return any of the premiums paid under the contract.

Effective date: August 2023

8 Windsor Place, Lower Pembroke Street, Dublin 2 D02 XE04
Tel: 01 6471200 Fax: 01 6471290  www.financeone.ie E : info@financeone.ie
Finance One Ltd is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland