Approved persons

The individual your firm is applying for must understand the importance of being honest with us from the start.

Your application must provide information on everything we ask for. If in doubt, let us know as much as possible, even if it may not seem relevant. And where you think that something you're disclosing about the individual shouldn't affect their fitness or propriety, explain why.

Giving us false or misleading information may be a criminal offence.

If you're not sure about disclosing convictions, you should seek legal advice.

Before applying, you must establish your own criteria of due diligence.

To help, here are some of the things we look for when assessing the candidate’s fitness and propriety:

• regulatory references
• qualification certificates
• credit checks
• criminal records checks
• directorship checks

Make sure that your firm and the candidate complete the relevant parts of your application, and that it's accurate and discloses all information. You should both then sign 2 copies, retaining one and sending us the other.

You'll need references from the candidate’s previous employer(s) – unless you're a sole trader, in which case you don't need to seek regulatory references for yourself.

‘Regulatory references’ (references from other authorised firms) are particularly important. If you're applying for SMF candidates or Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) who aren't Senior Managers, your firm must:

• get references from all previous employers (regulatory and non-regulatory) in the past 6 years, in line with SYSC 22.7[7] in our Handbook
• share information between firms in a standard template
• disclose certain information going back 6 years, including details of any disciplinary action taken due to breaches of our conduct rules and any findings that the person was not fit and proper
• tell us anything else which helps us assess whether the candidate is fit and proper (eg the number of upheld complaints)
• keep records of disciplinary and fit and proper findings
• not enter into arrangements that conflict with your disclosure obligations (eg non-disclosure agreements)

And at any time, not just in the past 6 years, you must tell us if the candidate was involved in a case of serious misconduct.

Your firm will also need to update regulatory references where new, significant information comes to light.

If you're having difficulty obtaining a reference

Authorised firms must give your firm a reference as soon as possible after you ask for one, in line with our Handbook rules[8].

If they don't do this, you should:

• explain you're requesting the reference under SUP 10A.15.1[9] of our Supervision manual
• let us know – either by informing your case officer (if appointed) or calling us on 0300 500 0597

You must:

• act with integrity
• act with due care, skill and diligence
• consider the interests of customers and treat them fairly
• observe proper standards of market conduct

You must:

• take reasonable steps to ensure that the business of the firm for which you are responsible is controlled effectively (SC1)
• take reasonable steps to ensure that the business of the firm for which you are responsible complies with the relevant requirements and standards of the regulatory system (SC2)
• take reasonable steps to ensure that any delegation of your responsibilities is to an appropriate person and that you oversee the discharge of the delegated responsibility effectively (SC3)
• disclose any information to us which we would reasonably expect to know about (SC4) – this also applies to NEDs who are not Senior Managers