The new FCA Financial Promotions Gateway - are you ready?

If your firm currently approves financial promotions for unauthorised third parties under Section 21 of FSMA and wants to continue doing so, it will need to submit an application for approver permission to the FCA by submitting a variation of permission (“VoP”) application. The process is set out in the FCA’s recent Policy Statement (PS23/13) and new chapter SUP 6A of the FCA’s Handbook, which comes into force on 6 November 2023.

The gateway requires any authorised person seeking to approve the financial promotions of unauthorised persons to first obtain the FCA's permission by submitting a variation of permission application, unless an exemption to the gateway applies. The FCA has expressly confirmed on its website that it expects firm to submit comprehensive applications of the highest quality, as the FCA has the power to reject applications.

Existing authorised persons will be able to apply to the FCA for permission during the initial “application period”. That period will run from 6 November 2023 to 6 February 2024. If a firm doesn’t apply during the 3-month window, the firm will need to stop approving financial promotions for unauthorised persons on 7 February 2024, other than in the circumstances specified in the exemptions.

Given the importance of this change, and the very limited time period in which to apply for approver permission, firms should confirm now whether they approve financial promotions, either for group entities or for third parties, and how they propose to do so moving forwards.

Please get in touch with us if you want to discuss this in more detail.

Our guide summarises the 10 things firms need to know about the financial promotions gateway.