NEWS & VIEWS
The beginning
FSL’s story began in 1994 in a small terrace house in south-east London. Founder, David Pirrie, had started work on a home project to show how suitable database tools could be for more complex financial applications like capital gains tax. It was an experiment at first but as David continued, his project grew in complexity until eventually it had developed into a full CGT management tool.
David knew he was on to something with this new tool so decided to take the plunge to set up a business to bring it to market. And so, an initially small but dedicated FSL team set to work preparing accounts, reviewing contacts, and creating the early CGiX user interfaces. They worked day and night, seven days a week, until the calculations were proven, the interfaces were written, and a well-structured database was built.
With foundations laid, it wasn’t long before the fledging FSL had two major banks lined up as its first clients and began crafting the exceptional reputation it still holds to this day.
CGiX hits the headlines
Four years later, it was 1998. The Spice Girls were in the charts and Gordon Brown had just announced significant reforms to capital gains tax with the introduction of taper relief and the scrapping of the indexation allowance. FSL was quick to not only understand these changes but implement them.
This swift response to Brown’s Finance Bill was picked up by the Financial Times, giving FSL direct contact with HMRC and making CGiX more relevant than ever.
FSL finds a home in the City
The millennium saw FSL find a home in the heart of the City. It had a formidable team, an enviable reputation and the most accurate securities taxation data set in the market. Business was strong. Then, in 2008, the chancellor, Alistair Darling, announced major reform to capital gains tax.
With the withdrawal of taper relief and indexation, and the introduction of a single rate of tax, calculating capital gains was made far simpler. FSL’s clients could have decided, given the new rules, that they wanted to try to do it themselves. But CGiX was more than just a basic calculator and clients understood the value it provided to their businesses. As a result, FSL kept going from strength to strength, and was refusing to run out of steam as it entered the 2010s.
Continued innovation
FSL was at the forefront of innovation again when it began work on its pioneering ORF solution in 2012.
The team were quick to pinpoint the challenge of calculating excess reportable income thanks to its close client relationships and extensive industry knowledge. They understood the difficulties of identifying offshore funds, determining a client’s tax liabilities and accurately reporting foreign investment and offshore income gains so they worked hard to streamline the process and make offshore investment tax reporting easier.
FSL’s ORF solution now offers the best fund coverage in the market to private banks, wealth managers, accountancy firms, and platform providers alike.
FSL: the market leader
Even a pandemic couldn’t slow down the FSL team which continued to innovate and adapt CGiX to meet evolving client demands and a changing market backdrop. Multi-jurisdiction, multi-account, and a unique ‘what-if’ functionality ensured that FSL’s flagship product remained the market leader.
As FSL enters its fourth decade, the business is still as alive as it was in those early years. Its team continues to work hard to provide unparalleled service, innovative technology, and best-of-breed offerings. Now part of the Industrial Thought group, FSL sits at the heart of a family of companies focused on bringing expertise and innovation together to support the financial services industry.
What began as an unassuming home project has now grown into a market-leading data and service offering and an unparalleled capital gains calculator.