About Us
Varramore Partners Limited (“Varramore”) is a boutique professional service provider offering a range of bespoke services to investment firms.
We provide services to investment firms that are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”), seeking to become authorised and regulated by the FCA or wishing to operate under the regulatory umbrella of an investment firm that is authorised and regulated by the FCA.
Varramore combines in-house investment sector experience with consulting practice knowledge to provide our clients with a “best of both” service. In addition to possessing extensive experience in the areas of regulatory hosting, governance, risk, compliance, accounting, finance and tax, Varramore understands how investment firms operate on a day-to-day basis. This combination allows us to deliver practical, pragmatic and proportionate services to our clients in a manner that adds values and improves operational efficiency.
We pride ourselves on forging strong working relationships with our clients. To do so, we work side-by-side with our clients to gain an in-depth understanding of their business, strategy and people. This enables us to provide our clients with a truly bespoke service tailored to their specific needs. We believe that delivering our services in a highly tailored manner ensures that our clients get the most out of their relationship with Varramore. Ultimately, our aim is to become a trusted and valued long-term business partner to our clients.
Our Services
We believe that delivering our services in a highly tailored manner ensures that our clients get the most out of their engagement with Varramore. The services we offer include, but are not limited to, the following:
Our Senior Team
Gerard O'Brien
Managing Director
Varramore's Governance, Risk & Compliance practice is led by Gerard O'Brien. Gerard has over 12 years of governance, risk and compliance experience with a specific focus on investment firm regulation. He has a Masters of Law (LLM), a Postgraduate Diploma in Investment Compliance (PGDip) and a Bachelor of Business Studies (BBS). Gerard is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (Chartered FCSI).
Sundip Bhogal
Managing Director
Sundip Bhogal leads Varramore's Accounting, Finance & Tax practice. Sundip has acquired over 14 years of accounting, finance and tax experience in his career to date and is a regulatory reporting specialist. He has qualified as a Chartered Certified Accountant with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). Sundip holds valid certification to conduct public practice under ACCA and he has a Bachelors Degree (BA) in Accounting and Finance.
Regulatory Hosting
An investment firm or individual investment professional can, if eligible, become an Appointed Representative ("AR") of Varramore and, under our regulatory umbrella, conduct a range of regulated investment activities without the need to become directly authorised and regulated by the FCA themselves.
Being an AR of Varramore can help reduce costs, effectively manage regulatory risks, improve operational infrastructure and attract clients.
Governance, Risk & Compliance
We help investment firms ensure that they are adhering to all relevant FCA regulatory requirements on a continuous basis and in a commercially viable manner by providing a range of pragmatic advisory, support, oversight and project services. These services include, but are not limited to, the following:
Regulatory Advice
Compliance Support
Monitoring Reviews
Infrastructure Maintenance
Policies and Procedures
Risk Assessments
Thematic Reviews
Compliance Projects
Accounting,
Finance & Tax
We work with investment firms to help them ensure that their financial and tax affairs are managed prudently and efficiently. Our range of accounting, finance and tax services include, but are not limited to, the following:
Financial statements
Company tax
Management accounts
Regulatory oversight
Budgeting
Bookkeeping
VAT returns
Self-assessment tax returns
Companies House filings
FCA Authorisation Applications
We provide bespoke services to start-up investment firms that are looking to become authorised and regulated by the FCA. These services include, but are not limited to:
Regulatory Business Plans
Financial Projections
Infrastructure Setup
Application Forms
Service Provider Selection
FCA Liaison
Our services are designed to take start-up investment firms to the point that they are authorised and regulated by the FCA.
Our Services
Our Investment Services Platform, Conformité, consists of our three core services - Regulatory Hosting, Governance Risk & Compliance and Accounting Finance & Tax - and combines technological innovation with industry expertise.
Conformité (French for "Compliance") enables boutique investment firms, and individual investment professionals, to carry out their regulated investment activities as an Appointed Representative ("AR") of Varramore and gives them access to institutional-quality regulatory, compliance, accounting, finance and tax infrastructure. Amongst others, Conformité is an ideal solution for investment advisors (including hedge fund and private equity/venture capital advisors), corporate finance advisors, investment research providers, third-party marketing firms and private placement agents.
Administered by Varramore's Senior Team, Conformité is delivered through a cloud-based platform run and operated using Microsoft SharePoint. Amongst other things, Conformité provides an interface for communicating information between Varramore and its ARs, calendars, task management tools, policies and procedures, risk assessments, training libraries and request/notification forms. It has robust record-keeping functionality and benefits from the operational resilience and data security capabilities of Microsoft 365.
Conformité provides Varramore’s ARs with a powerful, institutional-quality platform which allows them to deliver their regulated investment services to their clients in a compliant manner. Using Conformité, Varramore's ARs are able to carry out their regulated investment activities, with confidence, knowing that their regulatory, compliance, accounting, finance and tax needs are being managed to the highest standards by experienced professionals using best-in-class technology.
Our Investment Services Platform
Our Clients
We work with a wide variety of investment firms operating within different areas of the investment sector. Our clients carry out a range of regulated investment activities and employ various investment strategies. All our clients have a strong desire to run compliant businesses and have partnered with Varramore to help ensure this happens. A small selection of our current clients are shown below, as are a few testimonials from others:
“Varramore has been an outstanding partner to work with from the very beginning. Their marriage of top-quality professional service with personal touch and accessibility makes them the best in class, and an integral part of our team.”
~ Shikuma Capital (Global Macro Hedge Fund)
“We started our journey with Varramore Partners almost 2 years ago and... they have been very professional, collaborative, responsive, commercial and at the same time they make sure that all rules and regulations are adhered to. They are a specialist in their subject which helps immensely in all interactions with them and they have provided great support to our company from the word go. We strongly recommend that anyone looking to become an Appointed Representative should consider them as a Principal firm.”
~ Capital Code Group (Private Family Office Advisor)
“Our aim is to become a trusted and valued long-term business partner to our clients by providing value-adding professional services, business support
and industry insights.”