On 1 April 2013, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) formally came into existence and the FSA quietly disappeared. The FCA has recently issued a press release confirming that firms should review their regulatory status disclosures as a priority. You can find the new status disclosures here. We have set out below some practical steps you will need to consider following the legal cutover.
- Update your statutory status disclosure: You are no longer "Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority" and should change the statutory status disclosure to the correct form depending on whether you are dual regulated or not. This includes your website disclaimers, headed notepaper, business cards, account statements etc. The new status disclosures can be found here
- Remove the FSA's logo from any material: The FCA will not permit firms to use the FSA logo from 1 April 2014. There will also be no general licence for use of the FCA logo. Firms must apply to the FCA for an individual licence setting out why they consider the use of the FCA's logo is necessary.
- Amend references to the FSA in precedent contracts: References to the FSA in any standard form contracts should be removed and replaced as appropriate. Where it is unclear whether you should use the PRA or FCA, you could refer to being authorised under FSMA instead.
- Amend references to the UKLA in precedent contracts: The UK Listing Authority (UKLA) was the "competent authority" under FSMA for the old regime. The FCA has now assumed this role and the UKLA is no longer the "competent authority". Whilst the FCA is still referring to the UKLA on its website, there is no longer a statutory footing for this body. Firms may wish to remove references to the UKLA altogether (using the FCA instead) or keep the references but replace references to the FSA with the FCA.
- Reviewing internal policies: Firms should update internal policies and procedures to reflect the new regime and any changes made. For example, the change to the regulatory, any new regulated activities, market abuse changes etc.
- Review the controlled functions and approved persons regime: There are a number of important changes to the approved persons regime, including which functions are PRA functions and which are FCA functions. Firms should review their approved persons to see if any changes are necessary.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
We operate a free-to-view policy, asking only that you register in order to read all of our content. Please login or register to view the rest of this article.