The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has announced that Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) and the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) are to be within its guidance on unregulated collective investment schemes (UCIS).

The FSA plans to release its policy statement in the first quarter of 2013, now that the consultation period has ended.

This forms part of the FSA’s on-going focus on unregulated investment products, and proposals made in last August’s consultation paper which would restrict the selling of these funds only to specific ‘sophisticated investors’ which are defined.