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Authorisations

Sheree Howard, Executive Director, Authorisations

I have recently taken over the exciting challenge of leading our Authorisations Division.

I know how important it is that our authorisation process works smoothly and effectively. An efficient process can lower costs to firms and support UK competitiveness and growth.

We have been criticised for not processing applications for authorisation quickly enough.

I’m pleased to say that those days are gone. Our latest performance metrics show that 98% of applications were determined within the statutory deadline.

Our standards are robust and remain high to protect customers, bolster the UK market’s reputation and reduce harm to the economy from rogue firms.

We are transforming the way we work to make the authorisation process easier and faster. We are doing this by making better use of technology and by digitising parts of the process.

Our new online Form A makes the process easier to navigate and cuts down on the need for unnecessary engagement with applicants.

We take seriously our new secondary objective on growth and competitiveness and recognise the impact of the authorisation process.

We’re seeking to give more support to firms who need to get permissions.

Last year, we launched our pre-application support for wholesale firms or overseas wholesale firms and their advisers wishing to expand into the UK, aiming to expand out of London and the South East, or with innovative business models.

Our Early and High Growth Oversight function has helped more than 450 newly authorised and/or innovative or high growth firms meet their regulatory obligations, more efficiently and effectively, as they grow.

An efficient and effective authorisation process depends on quality and complete applications. We have a range of resources to help firms get it right.

I will be speaking with firms about our authorisation processes and look forward to hearing your views on how we can continue to improve the service.

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Need to know

The general election

Following the announcement of the general election, we have had enquiries about how much we will be publishing in the pre-election period.

The essential business we carry out will continue and be publicised as normal.

However, we are not planning to publish any major consultation or significant final rules during the election period and while Parliament is dissolved.

Additionally, the eighth edition of the Regulatory Initiatives Grid has been delayed. Members of the Financial Services Regulatory Initiatives Forum will consider when best to publish an update on the regulatory pipeline and initiatives later this year.

Consumer Duty: closed products deadline

The Consumer Duty provides a valuable opportunity to improve confidence in the financial services industry and support innovation, healthy competition and growth. We have seen many firms embrace the shift the Duty brings, driving culture change and delivering good outcomes for consumers.

In advance of the Consumer Duty coming into force for closed products and services on 31 July 2024 we’ve written to firms to support them in their final preparations.

The Dear CEO letters set out priority issues and actions firms should be considering ahead of the implementation deadline.

Overseas Fund Regime roadmap

The Overseas Funds Regime (OFR) is a new gateway to allow certain investment funds established outside the UK to be promoted to retail UK clients, following an equivalence decision by the UK Government and approval by the FCA.

We have published a joint roadmap with the Treasury setting out what happens when and have updated our website with information on how firms can start preparing.

European Economic Area (EEA) undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITs) in the Temporary Marketing Permissions Regime will need to apply for recognition under the OFR to continue to market to UK investors.

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All Sectors

Consumer Credit – Product Sales Data Reporting

We recently set out our final rules and guidance for 3 new Product Sales Data (PSD) returns for consumer credit agreements.

We worked closely with firms and trade bodies to ensure the burden on firms is proportionate to the benefits. Having fully considered the feedback and further analysis we have raised the financial threshold for reporting and extended implementation timelines.

New PSD returns will allow us to collect good quality data that supports our objectives in the consumer credit market. Firms which are immediately in scope of the return will shortly receive an email with details of their specific timelines.

A reminder about changes to Form A

The changes we’ve made to Form A (used for Senior Manager and Controlled Function applications) are now live for all new applications.

Existing draft applications will not be affected.

Our webpage gives more information on the changes we’re making to make it easier for firms to complete Authorisation applications.

UK EMIR reporting questions and answers

On 24 February 2023, we published a joint Policy Statement with the Bank of England confirming changes to the derivative reporting framework under UK European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR).

Most of the new requirements are applicable from 30 September 2024, with a transition period for some aspects.

Following feedback from industry, on 2 May 2024 we published finalised UK EMIR reporting questions and answers (Q&As) to support the bringing in of the new requirements.

We also published a further set of Q&As for consultation and would welcome any feedback by 12 June 2024.

Credit Information Market Study principles for industry-led remedies

We have published the principles for industry-led remedies to issues with the credit information market.

The principles set out a range of factors for stakeholders to consider when undertaking work on the remedies. These include input from a specialist and/or a range of relevant stakeholders and the potential impact on different firms and consumers.

We welcome views from all relevant stakeholders on the development and progress of the industry-led remedies in line with the above principles. Please send views and comments to: creditinformationmarketstudy@fca.org.uk

Operational Resilience - 10 months to go

Are you in-scope of our operational resilience rules? You now have 10 months to make sure you’re ready to comply with our final rules and policy by 31 March 2025.

To make sure you’re on track to becoming operationally resilient, we have published our observations and insights on firms’ preparations. We encourage you to use our insights to review your own approach and assess your readiness on some of the key areas of the policy.

Changes to how we verify callers to the FCA

Security is at the heart of our Technology and Data platforms. With this in mind, we’re making changes to improve and speed up how we verify callers to our Supervision Hub.

From mid-June 2024, callers will need to verify using a one-time passcode sent by text message. The changes align our phone verification process with multi-factor authentication which was rolled out for FCA systems last year.

See our resources page for more information.

Preparing your firm's financial information

We are improving the way we collect financial information at the gateway. On the Authorisations webpage, in preparing your firm’s financial information, you can now find a new template, available to Wholesale firms.

You can download this template and use it when you submit your firm’s financial information, as part of your application. The aim is to improve firms’ experience when applying for authorisation, by preventing unnecessary later requests for baseline financial information. This will enable us to keep our interactions focused.

Please note that this template does not replace the financial questions in other forms you need to submit with your application.

Payment Services and Electronic Money Individual notifications

A reminder, if your firm is authorised/registered under the Payment Services Regulations (PSRs) 2017 or Electronic Money Regulations (EMRs) 2011 you must notify us of any changes to the individuals responsible for the management of your payment services and/or e-money services.

Please note, this is a notification process only. We won’t usually contact you when processing your notification, however if we think that adding the individual will have an adverse effect on your business we will do so.

Find out more about our expectations and process here: Chapters 4 and 5 of Payment Services and Electronic Money – Our Approach

Transparency of terms – latest undertaking published under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (CRA)

We have published an undertaking under the CRA from Mercedes-Benz Financial Services (UK) Limited. This is in relation to a potentially unclear excess mileage term in the firm’s consumer vehicle Hire Purchase Agreements that contain an excess mileage charge.

We were concerned that it was unclear from the contract how the consumer’s permitted mileage would be calculated in the event the contract was terminated part way through a 12-month period. The firm agreed to improve the clarity of the term.

The firm fully co-operated in addressing our concerns.

We remind firms to ensure their contracts comply with the transparency and fairness requirements under the CRA. Read further information about our powers and other publications.

UK EMIR bilateral margin requirements

On 30 April 2024, we published proposed consequential amendments to the Binding Technical Standards (BTS) 2016/2251 for consultation jointly with the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in Chapter 5 of the PRA’s Occasional Consultation Paper. See the details in CP24/10 (PRA CP6/24).

We welcome your feedback by 30 May 2024.

James Lewis fined £120,300 for putting investors at risk

We banned and fined James Lewis £120k for putting investors at risk by providing incorrect information about his client’s cash reserves for their annual accounts.

Guy Flintham sentenced to 6 years for fraud over unauthorised investment scheme

On 17 May 2024, Guy Flintham was sentenced to 6 years for fraud over an unauthorised investment scheme. On 19 February 2024, Mr Flintham pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation, following a prosecution brought by the FCA.

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Data

Financial Promotions Q1 data

We have published data on our actions against firms breaching financial promotion rules, and referrals and investigations into unregulated activity. We looked at the period between 1 January 2024 and 31 March 2024.

Key findings include:

our interventions in 2024 Q1 resulted in 2,211 promotions being amended or withdrawn by authorised firms
we issued 597 alerts on unauthorised firms and individuals, 11% of these were clone scams

Authorisations Operating Service Metrics 2023/24 Q4

Our latest Authorisations Operating Service performance shows 10 metrics are green, 6 are amber and none are red. Some 98.1% of applications across all metric areas were determined within the statutory deadline.

Sign up to receive updates about our published data

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News and publication alerts

Our news and publications alerts keep you up to date with our press releases, speeches, statements, consultations, guidance, notices and decisions.

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Open Consultations

Have your say - respond to our open consultations and discussions:

See all our open consultations

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Letters

See all our portfolio letters

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Speeches, Events & Blogs

Speech: Our ambitious agenda for UK asset management

Ashley Alder, Chair, delivered a speech on our ambitious agenda for UK asset management at the Bloomberg Buy-side Forum.

Speech: Bellwethers of the economy: the need to engage with corporate treasurers to shape our markets

Nikhil Rathi, FCA Chief Executive, delivered a speech on the need to engage with corporate treasurers to shape our markets at the Association of Corporate Treasurers Annual Conference 2024.

Speech: Aiming for calm seas in our market reforms

Sarah Pritchard, Executive Director, Markets and Executive Director, International delivered a speech on aiming for calm seas in our market reforms at City & Financial Global's City Week 2024.

Speech: Power brokers: how to transform into the lynchpins of the ecosystem

Emily Shepperd, FCA Chief Operating Officer delivered a speech on power brokers: how to transform into the lynchpins of the ecosystem at the British Insurance Brokers' Association (BIBA) conference.

Speech: Building our societies through lending and savings

Emily Shepperd, FCA Chief Operating Officer delivered a speech on building our societies through lending and savings at the Building Societies Annual Conference.

Blog: The hidden cost of domestic financial abuse: working together to improve outcomes

Joanna Legg, Head of Consumer Policy & Outcomes writes about the hidden cost of domestic financial abuse: working together to improve outcomes in her recent blog.