United Kingdom · Payments & e-money
Global Investment Strategy UK LTD
Legal name in the LEI recordGLOBAL INVESTMENT STRATEGY UK LIMITED
Global Investment Strategy UK Limited (GIS) is a London-based private limited company, and Octagonal Limited holds 75% or more of its shares. The FCA authorises it as an investment firm and as an authorised payment institution under the Payment Services Regulations 2017, reference 437558. It offers clearing, custody, trade execution, asset management, payment accounts and money remittance to private, professional and institutional clients. In March 2022 a US federal court ordered it to pay a USD 1 million civil penalty in an SEC case over clearing US securities trades without broker-dealer registration.
Licences and registrations
Held by Global Investment Strategy UK Limited (LEI 2138002ZKYBVIEH1MI41). 1 entry on 1 of the 22 tracked registers, retrieved 25 September 2026.
| Register | Licence | Number | Jurisdiction | Status | Registered | Ends | Activities | Register entry |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FCA Financial Services Register - Payment Institutions & RAISPsFCALinked by LEI. Matched by Elucidate on the UK company number the register gives. | Authorised Payment InstitutionPayment Institution | 437558 | United Kingdom | Active | 2018-03-16 | — |
|
Search the register ↗ |
- Licences belong to the legal entity, not to a BIC.
- Each licence applies in the country of the regulator that granted it.
- Registers are tracked in 37 countries. Licences granted elsewhere are not recorded here.
- The register entries and their trading names were not matched against sanctions lists. The sanctions facts on this page cover the BIC and its LEI only.
Swift network
Swift’s ISO 9362 BIC directory
- BIC
- GLIRGB21XXX head office
- Connection to Swift
- Passive participant (no connection)This BIC is registered for identification only. The institution has no direct connection to the Swift network. Messages and payments reach it through a correspondent bank. The “1” in the eighth character of GLIRGB21 marks a passive participant.
- Swift GPI
- Not on the member list
- Payment schemes and systems
- No entry in the EPC registers, the ECB T2 and TIPS lists or the SIX Bank Master cites this BIC
- Branch codes
- None: head-office BIC only
- BIC first registered
- 2009-05-02
- Last updated
- 2025-09-15
Overview
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
Customers
Not published
Employees
Not published
Ownership
Group subsidiary
Octagonal Limited
Firm type
Investment or brokerage
Trades as Global Investment Strategy (GIS)
- Ownership
- Octagonal Limited (Companies House 06214926) holds 75% or more of the shares and voting rights. The founder, John William Gunn, is also registered as a person with significant influence or control.
- Direct parent
- Octagonal Limited, United Kingdom
- Head office
- 200 Aldersgate Street, EC1A 4HD London, United Kingdom
- Company register
- Companies House 04576299
- Incorporated
- 29 Oct 2002
- Founder
- John William Gunn
Online
- Websites & references
- gisukltd.com ↗
client.gisukltd.com ↗ client portal
Wikipedia ↗ group article - Official social accounts
- LinkedIn ↗ · X ↗
Sources · 15 pages consulted
- register.fca.org.uk/s/firm?id=001b000000MfhlrAAB
- find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/04576299
- find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/04576299/officers
- find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/04576299/persons-with-significant-control
- gisukltd.com/
- gisukltd.com/legal-regulatory/
- gisukltd.com/payment-services/
- gisukltd.com/meet-the-team/
- gisukltd.com/contact-us/
- gisukltd.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Global-Investment-Strategy-UK-Limited-Retail-Clients-Terms-of-
- gisukltd.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Investment-Firms-Prudential-Regime-Disclosure-31.3.25-Global-I
- sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-25360
- fca.org.uk/news/warnings/global-isuk-globalinvestmentstrategynet-clone-fca-authorised-firm
- fca.org.uk/news/warnings/giscapital-clone-fca-authorised-firm
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octagonal_(company)
Authorisation
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
- Operates under
- Its own licences
The FCA authorises the firm as an investment firm (since December 2005) and as an authorised payment institution (since March 2018), both under reference 437558. HMRC approves it as an ISA manager.
| Authority | Licence or registration | Number | Held | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial Conduct Authority United Kingdom | Authorised Payment Institution | 437558 | In its own name | Active | register.fca.org.uk ↗ |
| Financial Conduct Authority United Kingdom | Authorised firm (investment business under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000) | 437558 | In its own name | Active | register.fca.org.uk ↗ |
| HM Revenue & Customs United Kingdom | ISA Manager approval | Z1766 | In its own name | Active | gisukltd.com ↗ |
Licences and registrations the research found, at home and abroad, as the firm and its regulators publish them. The Licences and registrations card shows the entries on the registers the directory tracks.
Products and markets
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
Its main business is securities clearing, custody and trade execution. Its payment services consist of payment accounts and domestic and international money remittance, largely linked to clients' trading and investment activity.
It serves private, professional and institutional clients from London, and a separately regulated Hong Kong sister company covers Asia-Pacific trading hours.
- Sells to
- Financial institutions · Enterprises · Consumers
- Serves customers in
- United Kingdom
Leadership
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
- Chief executive
-
Samantha Esqulant
Chief Executive Officer
- Chair
-
John William Gunn
Chairman and Founder
- Chief financial officer
- Nilesh Kumar Jagatia Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary
- Executive
- Anthony Hugh Jon Binnie Non-Executive Director
- Executive
-
Melissa Needham
General Council, Legal
Recent events
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
The research found no fines, investigations, security incidents, licence changes or corporate events from the last three years.
Compliance-relevant events of the last three years, newest first: fines and enforcement, investigations, security incidents, licence changes, funding rounds, acquisitions and leadership changes. Each links to its source.
Regulator warnings
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
-
Impersonation Financial Conduct Authority, United Kingdom
The FCA warned that global-is.uk / globalinvestmentstrategy.net was a clone firm using the details of the authorised firm.
fca.org.uk ↗ -
Impersonation Financial Conduct Authority, United Kingdom
The FCA warned that GISCapital was a clone firm claiming to be the authorised firm, which had no connection with it.
fca.org.uk ↗
Entries on regulators’ consumer-warning lists that name the firm or its brand. An impersonation warning is about fraudsters posing as the firm, not about the firm itself.
Identifiers
Head-office record
- BIC
- GLIRGB21XXX
- How the BIC breaks down
- GLIRBank
- GBCountry · United Kingdom
- 21Location · passive
- XXXBranch · head office
- Branch description
- Not recorded in the directory
- LEI
- 2138002ZKYBVIEH1MI41
- LEI record
- View on GLEIF ↗
- Licence no. · FCA-PSD
- 437558
- How the LEI was matched
- BIC: Mapped to this BIC in the Swift and GLEIF BIC-to-LEI relationship file.Register entry: Matched by Elucidate on the UK company number the register gives.
- Register-entry ID
- 1e017b8c47ca
Profile
- Type
- Payments & e-moneyPayment institutions, e-money and stored-value issuers, and account-information providers. Licensed under payment-services law (e.g. PSD2 in the EU and UK, the Payment Services Act in Singapore). Taken from the licences on the tracked registers.
- Regulation
- Prudential licenceAuthorised with capital, safeguarding and conduct requirements, e.g. an authorised payment or e-money institution in the EU or UK, a major payment institution in Singapore, or a MiCA crypto-asset service provider.
- Register licences
- 1 entry on 1 register
- Activities
- Payment services
- Licensed in
- United Kingdom
- Website (register)
- www.gisukltd.com ↗
- Country · region
- United Kingdom · Europe & Central Asia
- Trading venues (MIC)
- No MIC registered under this LEI list of 2026-09-17
- OFAC sanctions
- No listing cites this BIC
- EU sanctions
- No listing matched this BIC or its LEI
- Country sanctions
- No country programme
Types come from Swift’s BIC classification, the licences on the 22 tracked registers, and the ECB and FSB bank lists. Most banks outside the euro area appear as financial institutions, because their supervisors’ registers are not tracked yet.
Ownership and group
GLEIF relationship records
GLEIF’s relationship records name no parent for this LEI, and no group page is published for it.
Addresses
- Registered address
- UNITED KINGDOM
- Operational address
- BROOK POINT 14 HIGH ROAD LONDON LONDON N20 9BH UNITED KINGDOM
ISO 20022 identification
As an agent in a Swift cross-border payment message (CBPR+)
A CBPR+ message identifies this institution by its BIC, and may add its LEI or a clearing code. CBPR+ does not allow a name and postal address next to a BIC.
- Identified by
- BIC, with its LEI
- Roles in CBPR+
- Debtor agent, creditor agent or an intermediary agent
CBPR+
For cross-border payments on Swift: the BIC, with the LEI and clearing code where known
<FinInstnId>
<BICFI>GLIRGB21XXX</BICFI>
<LEI>2138002ZKYBVIEH1MI41</LEI>
</FinInstnId>Full record
Every ISO 20022 element the directory holds. Base ISO 20022 allows them together. CBPR+ does not allow a name and address next to a BIC
<FinInstnId>
<BICFI>GLIRGB21XXX</BICFI>
<LEI>2138002ZKYBVIEH1MI41</LEI>
<Nm>GLOBAL INVESTMENT STRATEGY UK LTD</Nm>
</FinInstnId>This BIC is not connected to Swift. Messages reach the institution through a correspondent bank, so it cannot be the instructing or instructed agent.
The BIC, name and address are as published in Swift’s BIC directory. The LEI comes from the Swift and GLEIF BIC-to-LEI file. Check them against your own records before use.
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Sources & method
Every value comes from a public source, such as Swift’s ISO 9362 BIC directory, GLEIF or the OFAC and EU sanctions lists. Most sources are matched on a BIC or an LEI, not on a name.
Swift GPI membership is matched on names and is indicative. A missing sanctions match does not mean that no listing applies. Always screen against the official lists.
Register entries are not screened against sanctions lists. The sanctions facts on this page cover the BIC and its LEI only.
An institution is one entry in the directory: a BIC8 in Swift’s directory, or a firm on a tracked register that holds no BIC. Licences held by an institution with a BIC are shown on its page.
Read the methodology →Credits for this page
- FCA Financial Services Register - Payment Institutions & RAISPs—Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) · register ↗ as at 25 September 2026
- Overview, authorisation, partners, products, leadership and events—researched per institution by an AI model with web search, from the firm's own website, terms and filings, regulators' registers and notices, company registers and news. Licences, partners, figures, people and events link to their source, and each card shows the research date. AI research can be wrong or out of date, so check key facts at the source.
- Images—logos and photos from Wikimedia Commons (credited with their author and licence) or from the institution's own website, where Wikimedia has none. Elucidate keeps a copy of each; the links lead to the source and the original image. Logo: gisukltd.com (official website) · original; Samantha Esqulant: gisukltd.com (official website) · original; John William Gunn: gisukltd.com (official website) · original; Melissa Needham: gisukltd.com (official website) · original.
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A BIC identifies an institution; it does not assess it. The Elucidate FinCrime Index (EFI) is an independent score of the financial crime risk of banks, built for correspondent banking and counterparty due diligence.
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