On February 26, 2016, the Prudential Regulation Authority published a final Policy Statement, Supervisory Statement and Rules for the internal governance of branches of non-EEA banks and PRA-designated investment firms. The PRA consulted in 2015 on its proposed changes, which centre around creating a separate PRA Rulebook. These changes follow the split of the Financial Services Authority into the PRA and the Financial Conduct Authority, after which the PRA inherited materials from the FSA to create a Rulebook which contains only PRA rules. The new Rules and Supervisory Statement set out how third country branches should comply with PRA requirements for internal governance of third country branches and cover general organizational requirements, responsibility of personnel, skills, knowledge and expertise of individuals, risk control, outsourcing and record keeping. The PRA has also aligned the final Rules and Supervisory Statement with the requirements for third country branches under the Senior Manager and Certification Regimes. The Rules on internal governance of third country firms will apply from March 7, 2016, the same date from which the SM&CR applies for all firms.
The PRA's Policy Statement is available at: http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/pra/Documents/publications/ps/2016/ps816.pdf and the PRA's Supervisory Statement is available at: http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/pra/Documents/publications/ss/2016/ss416.pdf.
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.