Conduct rules

The half of regulation that governs behaviour rather than solvency. The recurring items are the same across regimes: take all sufficient steps to obtain the best result available for a client instruction, communicate in a way that is fair, clear and not misleading, identify and manage conflicts, keep records, handle complaints inside published time limits, and assess whether a product is appropriate for the client it is offered to. Each is a rule about what the firm does, which is why each is testable against documents.

Best execution is the clearest illustration of the boundary. The obligation is to have an execution policy, to apply it consistently, to monitor the results and to evidence the monitoring. It cannot require that a price moves in a particular direction after an instruction is filled, and it does not promise a better fill than the market offered at that moment. A rule that bound an outcome would be a rule no firm could keep, so the rules bind the process that produces it.

Marketing is inside the perimeter rather than outside it. A risk warning is mandatory rather than decorative, a claim a firm cannot evidence is prohibited whether or not anyone relied on it, and a communication stays a regulated document whether it appears in a prospectus or on a social feed. That is the rule a performance claim is measured against.