Regulation

Unio Financial Services Ltd Trading as Unio, Unio Employee Benefits and Unio Wealth Management (“Unio”) are regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.

Unio is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland as:

  • as an Investment Business Firm under section 10 of the Investment Intermediaries Act 1995 (as amended) respectively; and
  • as an Insurance Intermediary under the European Union (Insurance Distribution) Regulations, 2018.

Central Bank of Ireland Regulated Activities

Unio is subject to the Central Bank of Ireland Code(s) of Conduct, including

  • Consumer Protection Regulations
  • Standards for Business Regulations
  • Fitness and Probity Standards
  • Minimum Competency Code

Unio must comply with these codes which offer protection to consumers. These Codes can be found on the Central Banks website at www.centralbank.ie.

As an Investment Intermediary, Unio provides its services to its clients on a "fair analysis of the market" basis. This means that it considers a sufficiently large number of products and producers available in the market which enables us to make a recommendation to meet our client’s needs.

Some of Unio’s Employee Benefits services are regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland and are covered by the terms of its various protections. These services include:

  • The insurance mediation services that Unio Employee Benefits provides to pension scheme trustees and to sponsoring employers.
  • Services involving the receipt and transmission of orders in investment instruments provided in the context of administering defined contribution pension schemes and consultation with scheme trustees in relation to selecting fund managers.

Our regulated activities and investment instruments include:

  • Insurance mediation
  • Receiving and transmitting orders
  • Investment advice

Regulated Investment Instruments

  • Transferable securities
  • Units or shares in collective investment schemes and UCITS
  • Trackers bonds or similar instruments
  • Insurance policies
  • Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSAs)

Un-Regulated Activities

The provision of certain Unio Employee Benefits are un-regulated and, therefore, do not require licensing, registration, or authorisation by the Central Bank of Ireland and as a result, are not covered by the Central Bank of Ireland rules designed to protect consumers or by a statutory compensation scheme.

Our un-regulated activities include:

  • Registered Administration Services
  • Pension Scheme Design
  • Actuarial Valuations
  • Risk Management Services

Occupational Pension Scheme services are supervised by the Pensions Authority.

Occupational pension schemes and larger corporate entities are specifically excluded from entitlement to claim from the Investor Compensation Fund.