Recruit, change or terminate an appointed representative

If you're a principal firm, find out how to recruit, change or terminate appointed representatives (AR) and complete related Approved Persons applications.

When you let appointed representatives (ARs) carry out regulated activities for your firm, anything they do (or don’t do) will be treated as if it were you. So you must make sure that the ARs you appoint can be effectively supervised and meet our standards.

You're also responsible for making sure any individuals you want us to approve at the ARs are fit and proper and comply with our rules.

When appointing an AR, you may need to complete an Approved Person application related to your AR notification.

We expect to receive high quality notifications and applications that show you understand your responsibilities and have appropriate systems and controls in place.

As part of increased scrutiny at the application gateway, we assess both AR notifications and related Approved Persons applications together.

Recruiting an AR

To recruit a new AR, you need to notify us by completing an 'add an appointed representative or tied agent' form on Connect, at least 30 calendar days before the AR appointment starts. 

How long it takes to assess applications

In many cases it'll take longer than 30 days to complete an AR appointment

For example, if the individual also needs to be approved by us to carry out roles as an Approved Person, it may take up to 90 days or, if we need additional information, longer. 

You should build these timescales into your onboarding and due diligence plans. 

Change of AR details 

You must complete the 'appointed representative or tied agent change details' form in Connect

Terminate an AR

You must complete the 'terminate AR' form in Connect.

Make sure you're clear on the circumstances when it's likely to be appropriate to terminate an AR relationship. For example, this could be when an AR is unwilling or unable to resolve identified issues, or when an AR is misleading clients.

Make sure you take reasonable steps to assist ARs with an orderly wind-down where this is necessary.

Page updates

: Information added on Approved Persons applications.
: Information added information on changing AR details and terminating an AR
: Editorial amendment Updates to page features for website refresh
: Information changed To reflect when we sent our Section 165 request
: Information added To reflect our Section 165 request
: Information changed Page updated following publication of Policy Statement PS22/11: Improvements to the Appointed Representatives regime