Unit Trusts (Electronic Communications) Order 2009

I join the noble Lord, Lord Howard of Rising, in welcoming the regulations on the mechanics of transfer of unit trusts and what are called OEICs; I love the way we go into such phrases for these things. There is only one point that I ask the Minister to clarify. It appears from the papers before us that, as the noble Lord, Lord Howard, referred to, one of the consultation outcomes was a separation in regulation between the requirement for a manager to take reasonable steps to verify the identity of the person submitting electronic instructions and the property law provisions providing that a transfer could be effective. In other words, the transfer is effective irrespective of fraud in the transmission of the electronic communication. One important issue here, from the point of view of fund managers, is what the requirement is for managers to take reasonable steps to ensure that the identity of the person submitting the communication has been verified. I understand that in another place the suggestion was made that if the regulations of the Investment Management Association were adopted by the FSA, and if the fund manager had complied with those requirements as set out in the recommendations of the Investment Management Association, that would constitute taking reasonable steps and provide a defence for the fund manager in relation to an accusation that reasonable steps had not been taken. I would be grateful if the Minister could confirm that that will be the case.