FIN.

FCA reports on secondary objective progress

The FCA has published the required metrics on the success of its secondary international competitiveness and growth objective. It has split the metrics into the themes of:

  • authorisations and operational efficiency: during 2023/24, it approved over 1,000 authorisation applications and a similar number of VOPs and Change in Control applications and over 6,000 SMF applications, while only around 1,200 firm and 500 SMF applications were withdrawn, rejected or refused. During the year the Register showed around 62,000 individuals approved for at least one SMF and nearly 170,000 registered to at least one certified function;
  • policy and regulatory impact: this section looks at cost effectiveness, benefits from policy work, regulatory initiatives and satisfaction with and confidence in regulation;
  • data collection: this summarised data collected using RegData and what type of firms it came from, and what firms think of the requests and timelines for response the FCA gives them; and
  • digital and innovation: this gives details of applications to the FCA’s innovation pathways and regulatory sandbox and the sectors from which they come. Overall, 29% of applications succeeded, with most of the ones that failed being assessed as not meeting the “Need for Support” criteria while nearly half of applicants did not meet one or more of the Genuine Innovation, Consumer Benefit or Readiness criteria.

Emma Radmore