On 11 September 2025, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a new webpage sharing examples of good practice and areas for improvement from authorisation and registration applications it has seen. The webpage should be read in conjunction with the FCA’s authorisations webpage.
The good practice and areas for improvement are set out under the following topics:
- Firms have the staff with the appropriate skills, experience and capacity to provide the relevant financial service.
- Firms have robust policies in place that document their processes and procedures.
- Firms have the financial resources in place that are appropriate for the nature and scale of their business.
The good practices for the second item above include firms:
- Using the FCA’s sample business plan to make sure key information is included.
- Making clear within their policies how their decisions are made in the UK when their operations are located overseas. Firms should be able to demonstrate clear reporting lines and explain how they will allocate appropriate resources to the UK entity.
- Providing detailed analysis in their application of how each permission applied for is relevant for the firm’s intended activities. Firms provide their legal advice or make reference to the FCA’s Perimeter Guidance Manual.
- Weaving in the Consumer Duty throughout their policies, procedures, systems and controls, rather than simply repeating the FCA’s expectations of the Duty in a separate document.