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ARTICLE · 04 OCTOBER 2019

Senior Managers And Certification Regime - Are You Prepared?

Gowling WLG
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published its Final Rules on the extension of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR) to all solo-regulated firms in July 2019

United KingdomFinance and Banking
Sushil Kuner
Sushil Kuner
Simon Stephen
Simon Stephen
Ian Mason
Ian Mason
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published its Final Rules on the extension of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR) to all solo-regulated firms in July 20191. All FCA solo-regulated firms authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA) will, from 9 December 2019, be subject to the SMCR which aims to strengthen individual accountability in financial services. It is therefore a culture and governance issue as much as a compliance and legal issue.

In this article, Sushil Kuner and Simon Stephen summarise the key changes and explore the practical considerations for solo-regulated firms.

Firms should treat the implementation of the SMCR seriously. One of the main purposes of the SMCR is to make it easier for the FCA to bring enforcement action against senior management and other accountable individuals. There is therefore a risk that Senior Managers who have been allocated responsibility for implementation of the SMCR also face

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