In this Policy Statement we report on the main issues arising from Consultation Paper 16/1 Consequential Changes to the Senior Managers Regime and publish the final rules.
Why are we issuing this policy statement?
In January 2016 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) consulted on proposed consequential amendments[1] to the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR). These changes reflect HM Treasury’s removal of the requirement for firms to report known and suspected breaches of our conduct rules to the FCA, as set out under section 64B(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA).
This Policy Statement (PS) summarises the feedback received during the consultation and confirms the final policy and forms. The PRA will confirm its final rules and amended forms in a separate Policy Statement (PS).
This PS also finalises some minor technical amendments to SYSC 1 Annex 1, which deal with how SYSC applies to foreign branches. These amendments are required to ensure that SYSC 1 Annex 1 reflects our final rules for foreign branches.
[2]PS16/6: Consequential Changes to the Senior Managers Regime[3] [PDF]
Who is this policy statement aimed at?
This PS will be of primary interest to UK banks, building societies, credit unions and PRA-designated investment firms. It will also be of interest to incoming branches of overseas relevant firms. As the obligations under the SM&CR apply to all staff that are subject to the conduct rules, the proposed rule changes will affect a large number of individuals within these firms.
What are the next steps?
Firms should continue to the use the pre-SM&CR versions of Forms C and D until 7 March 2016, after which they should only use the versions of the forms attached to this PS. We have also updated the versions of the forms where they appear in the regulators’ respective websites and rulebooks.