FCA update UK for solo-regulated firms

The FCA is also consulting on extending other deadlines for those entities and has updated its website here with its proposals.

Highlights

Certification

The deadline for firms undertaking the first fitness and propriety assessment of their Certified Persons has been delayed from 9 December 2020 until 31 March 2021.

Other potential changes:

In order to keep the SMCR deadlines consistent, the FCA will consult on extending the deadline from 9 December 2020 to 31 March 2021 for the following:

• the date the Conduct Rules come into force for Conduct Rules Staff (ie not Senior Managers and Certified Staff, who are already subject to the rules);
• the deadline for submission of information about Directory Persons to the Register; and
• references in the FCA rules to the deadline for assessing Certified Persons as fit and proper (which has been agreed by the Treasury).

Further detail

Certification

• Firms should continue with their SMCR projects.
• If firms can certify staff earlier than March 2021, they should do so.
• Firms should not wait to remove staff who are not fit and proper from certified roles.

Conduct rules

• Senior Managers must ensure that Conduct Rules training is effective and the FCA has reminded firms that training programmes will require planning, time and effort to deliver effectively. The rules expressly require the training to be tailored to different types of staff – so a one-size fits all approach will not sufficient. For asset managers, our SMCR E-Training Academy and SMCR Solution products offer differentiated training which is tailored to individual role types within a typical asset management firm. The SMCR Solution also features tracking and monitoring functionality for the certification process. Please get in touch for a free demo.
• The FCA will produce further communications about their expectations in due course.

Directory

• The FCA will still publish details of certified employees starting from 9 December 2020 on the Financial Services Register (to the extent the information has been provided by firms).
• Firms should provide the relevant information before March 2021, if possible.

Benchmark administrators

• The FCA do not intend to move the deadline for benchmark administrators because the certification regime and Directory requirements do not apply to them.
• Benchmark administrators have until December 2021 to train non-Senior Manager staff in the Conduct Rules. This deadline has not changed.

The reason for the changes is to give firms significantly affected by the coronavirus pandemic time to make the changes they need.

The FCA intend to consult alongside parliamentary process, to allow them to finalise the FCA’s policy as soon as possible.

See our coronavirus (COVID-19) feature for more information generally on the possible legal implications of COVID-19.