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Guiding you
through compliance

We provide compliance advice and services
for the Financial Services Industry

find out more

ATEB Comp new

We are the Thistle Group

As a collective of compliance, technology, and professional service companies, we are dedicated to supporting regulated financial services firms and those on the journey to becoming regulated.

Our teams of industry experts have specialised knowledge in various regulatory and professional services, enabling us to offer valuable advice and support to help our clients understand and fulfill their regulatory obligations.

With Thistle Group by your side, you can confidently take your business forward.

Our companies

“ The outstanding team we have in place at Thistle Initiatives is the key to our success in supporting clients through numerous M&A transactions, supervision, enforcement, tribunals and FCA authorisations.

We have a mindset that mixes problem-solving with a business-oriented approach to provide the finest level of service, which I’m equally proud of.”

Sophie Long

CEO

Financial services compliance, without the complexity

Thistle Initiatives is here for every business from niche start-ups to global leaders. We can help you get your ideas to market, unravel your regulatory responsibilities, secure FCA authorisation, help implement regulatory change and provide market leading ongoing compliance support.

Services we offer:

Acquisition Due Diligence
Financial Crime
Applications to the FCA in the UK and regulators across the EU
Compliance support
Audits & Advisory
ICARA & Regulatory reporting
Supervision and Enforcement Support

Sectors we operate in:

Investments
Payment services
Credit
Mortgages
Digital assets
General insurance

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An insurance broker dedicated to financial services firms

Absolute Cover prioritises personalised insurance policies, considering your business’s specific exposures, risk management and trading history, rather than just your business description or industry.

With clients right across the financial services sector, we understand how businesses operate. By taking the time to get to know the true exposures of your business and how you manage your risk, we can build a strong submission pack, allowing underwriters to provide competitive quotations. We cover financial services firms ranging across the Investments, Payment Services and Credit sectors, offering a bespoke solution for you and your business needs.

Products:

Professional Indemnity (PI) Insurance
Cyber and Data Insurance
Directors and Officers’ Insurance
Crime Insurance

Visit our website

“ The Absolute Cover team are passionate about insurance being an enabler, so businesses can have peace of mind that their tailor-made insurance cover provides a safety net, as they continue to grow.”

Joshua
Upil

Head of Insurance

“ From day one Thistle Initiatives was guided by a strong principle to be much more than a compliance consultancy, instead we think beyond the rule book and add value to every project we undertake.”

Steve Bailey

Director

Shining a light on compliance for speciality retail firms

ATEB Compliance, is a compliance consultancy offering practical, hands-on support for FCA regulated retail financial services firms. Our main objective is to provide retail clients with helpful advice and guidance so they may fulfill their regulatory obligations as well as their commercial goals. We believe that a “hands-on” service is the most effective way to help clients accomplish this.

Since our establishment in 1996, the ATEB team has assisted with and attended more than 150 regulatory visits and has completed numerous S166 skilled persons reviews, and we continue to deliver hundreds of client visits and file reviews each year, including DB transfer and other complex risk areas.

Typical clients include:

Independent /Restricted Financial Advisers
Discretionary Fund Managers
General Insurance Brokers
Mortgage/Protection brokers.

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Time saving suitability report writing software for consistent client outcomes

ATEB Suitability is an intelligent multi-product suitability report generator designed to offer Financial Advisers a simple, yet comprehensive tool to help streamline their advice process.

ATEB Suitability will give you a smarter, more cost-effective, and compliant approach to producing your suitability reports. Having been developed using cutting edge intelligent document creation software, combined with the expertise of leading compliance experts, it offers a fresh approach to the production of suitability reports which are both comprehensive and personalised.

Key Features

Intuitive and dynamic wizard
‘Complete the sentence’ and ‘free text’ prompts
Multi-product report capability with comprehensive content
Create and manage your own ‘content library’
Apply your own ‘house style’
Build and save your own templates using your content
Personalised risk profiles
Built-in Provider/Platform library with over 100 descriptive paragraphs
Built-in Investments library with over 650 descriptive paragraphs
Combine and add generic or technical information in Word or PDF as part of an appendix

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“ ATEB Suitability is developed with the mission of transforming financial compliance. Our aim is for each suitability report to be customised to match your clients’ distinct requirements, fostering trust in your relationships, speeding up production times and easing your regulatory responsibilities.”

David Anderson

Director

“ We’re on a journey to build a consultancy that delivers impactful and lasting change for companies of all scales. We work with businesses from start-ups to globally recognised names, providing them with support and expertise to deliver their ambitions.”

Darren Schindler

Managing Partner
& Founder

“ Our team have the expertise to provide guidance from C-level strategic advice to on-the-ground implementation and delivery. We work closely with clients from project ideation through to completion. We take great pride in delivering work that helps you move your business forward.”

Pete Brown

Managing Partner
& Founder

A consultancy partner delivering real results

Exevion is a management consultancy that challenges convention and makes consultancy services accessible to every type of business. We work across industries, helping businesses with Strategy, Transformation, Operations, Product and M&A.

Clients trust us because we’re a business where people want to work and where doing the right thing is valued. Our success is measured by the outcome of what we deliver, not just the weight of our PowerPoints. At Exevion, we’re all about helping businesses move at pace. We think differently, constantly adapt, and deliver real results.

Our services

Strategy – Shape and deliver strategic ambitions
Product – Launch new products to market.
Innovation – Identify, grow and leverage start-up capabilities.
Transformation – Build and manage robust transformation plans.
Operations – Make companies efficient and resilient.
Mergers & Acquisitions – We deliver value across the M&A deal cycle.

Visit our website

We are the Thistle Group

Our companies

Sophie Long

Financial services compliance, without the complexity

An insurance broker dedicated to financial services firms

Joshua Upil

Steve Bailey

Shining a light on compliance for speciality retail firms

Time saving suitability report writing software for consistent client outcomes

David Anderson

Darren Schindler

Pete Brown

A consultancy partner delivering real results

Executive team

Sophie Long

GROUP CEO

THISTLE GROUP

James Dingwall

Founder & Director

THISTLE GROUP

Michael Bellenger

Finance & Operations Director

THISTLE GROUP

Mark Husler

NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

THISTLE GROUP

Alex Paschalis

INVESTMENTS DIRECTOR

THISTLE INITIATIVES

Steve Bailey

DIRECTOR

ATEB COMPLIANCE

David Anderson

DIRECTOR

ATEB SUITABILITY

Huw Reynolds

DIRECTOR

ATEB COMPLIANCE

Jonathan Greenstein

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & MARKETING DIRECTOR

THISTLE INITIATIVES

Jessica Cath

HEAD OF FINANCIAL CRIME

THISTLE INITIATIVES

Matthew Williamson

HEAD OF CREDIT & MORTGAGES

THISTLE INITIATIVES

Lorraine Mouat

HEAD OF PAYMENT SERVICES

THISTLE INITIATIVES

Joshua Upil

HEAD OF INSURANCE

ABSOLUTE COVER

Darren Schindler

MANAGING PARTNER & FOUNDER

EXEVION

Peter Brown

MANAGING PARTNER & FOUNDER

EXEVION

Contact us

Joshua
Upil