This page provides data on our authorisations activities, including the number of new authorisations for each sector and the number of individuals in scope of the Senior Manager and Certification Regime.
Our outcomes
Authorisations operating efficiency icon
Our metrics also provide an insight into our internal processes including our responses to pre-vetting listed issuers’ documents and our staff turnover.
Metrics
What the metric values tell us
Getting our processes right is key for both growth and competitiveness. The efficiency and effectiveness of our internal processes and communications impact the firms and individuals that interact with us. And our Authorisation processes are the gateway for firms seeking to enter the UK’s financial services sector.
Our Authorisations Division determined a large number of cases in the last year (OE–M01 to OE-M03). Most applicants for Senior Manager approvals, 91.9% (6327/6888) and around half of applicants for New Firm Authorisations, 49.2% (1172/2378) are successful. Most of the applications that are not approved are withdrawn rather than refused. Find out more in our guidance on every type of firm authorisation[2].
We meet statutory deadlines for most New Firm Authorisation, Variation of Permission, Change in Control and Senior Manager approval cases (OE-M05). And we set ambitious targets for meeting these deadlines, as can be seen in our quarterly Authorisations Operating Service Metrics[3]. Any area of authorisations that meets deadlines in less than 90% of cases is red rated and a green rating requires statutory deadlines to be met in over 98% of cases. We assess 98% of authorisation cases within statutory deadlines.
We meet almost 100% of voluntary internal turnaround targets for pre-vetting documents submitted by listed issuers, unlisted issuers, and new applicants (OE-M06).
The most reliable proxy for new firm entry available to us based on internal data is the number of New Firm Authorisations in each sector (OE-M07) over the reporting period. This figure excludes appointed representatives (ARs), from whom we receive notifications rather than authorisation applications. The new firm entry figure includes existing firms that set up a new subsidiary before transferring existing operations and any firms authorised because of the FCA’s perimeter expanding.
Metric OE-M07 also shows the number of cancellations approved over the financial year (as a proxy for firm exits). This figure is significantly larger than the number of firms authorised over the last year. However, not all cancellations are due to firms deciding to exit the market. We will cancel the permissions of firms that are not complying with our minimum requirements[4] or are not actively using their permissions[5]. The number of cancellations over the last year has been particularly affected by:
- firms that chose not to continue to participate in the UK market because of our withdrawal from the EU (the 31 December 2023 was the last date firms in TPR could remain authorised)
- an increase in our proactive work to remove problem firms (which prompted a significant number of voluntary cancellations)
- challenges posed by the wider economic environment
While we can’t split the cancellation figure by sector, a significant proportion (around 70%) of the firms cancelling last year were in the Retail Lending sector (for example, consumer credit firms). Many of these firms were likely using these permissions on an additional basis.
There is also an improvement in market cleanliness in 2023 compared with 2022 (OE-M08), although year to year changes may not reflect significant trends.
There are high levels of firm satisfaction across our direct interactions with firms, and in our firm-facing communications, with a significant proportion of firms agreeing that our communications are clear, consistent and relevant (OE-M09).
Our full-time equivalent (FTE) staff number grew from 4,033 in 2022/23 to 4,723 in 2023/24, with the overall turnover rate falling to 9.9% from 17.5% in 2022/23 (OE-M10). Voluntary turnover was 7.2% for 23/24 which was lowest since the FCA was established other than during the year of pandemic. The increase in FTE-equivalent headcount was consistent across divisions, with an increase of 19% for frontline divisions (Supervision, Policy and Competition, Authorisations, and Enforcement) and 21% for support divisions. The increase in staff numbers across the board was largely driven by an increase in the FTE resource assigned to our priority commitments, while the increase in Operations specifically was the result of contractors being converted to permanent resources which led to greater efficiencies and cost savings.
View all FCA Secondary international competitiveness and growth objective (SICGO) metrics[6]