New Directory: The Financial Conduct Authority
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) have expanded their current 'Senior Managers and Certification Regime' to include a wider range of regulated firms. This regulation, which sets out clearly defined conduct rules for senior managers, aims to protect consumers and replaces the existing ‘Approved Persons Regime’.
The objective is to raise standards across the industry and ensure that each individual takes responsibility for their actions. For certain firms, they must adhere to the ‘enhanced tier’ which means that every function of the business has an allocated and responsible senior manager. Organisations must also produce and maintain a ‘responsibilities’ map. The regulation comes into force on 9th December 2018.
In response to demand from the financial services sector, there is also a plan from the FCA to create a new 'Directory for Financial Services Workers'. This directory will be a public register and will assist Financial Services register/directory checks:
https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/consultation-papers/cp18-19-introducing-directory
Anyone working in a controlled function and any person with a significant interest in the business should be included, for example, persons with significant control as defined by Companies House. These inclusions are currently open to consultation and within the PDF there is a link to a response page where anyone can offer their opinion:
https://www.fca.org.uk/cp18-19-response-form.