The Financial Services Register (FS Register) provides a public record of the firms it regulates and the individuals the FCA has approved including those holding a Senior Management Function (SMF).
The FS Register will continue to extend the Senior Managers Regime by requiring additional individuals in a firm to be named on the FS Register, whom includes:
- Directors who are not performing Senior Manager Functions – both executive and non -executive
- Other individuals who are sole traders
- All certified staff (those holding a certification function under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR) (Not applicable to Limited Scope Firms such as claims management firms).
Information to appear on the public Directory:
| Information | Explanation |
| Employer details | FS Register data about a firms principle place of business – its name, firm reference number (FRN), address contact telephone, fax, email and website. |
| Restrictions applying to a firms regulated activities | Details of where the FCA has applied restriction to a firms activities or permissions. |
| Individuals name | Full name, including any middle names. |
| Individual reference Number | A unique identifier assigned currently to each individual by the FCA on the FS Register. This will be extended to individuals in scope of the Directory. If a Firm notifies the FCA of an individual without an IRN, the system will assign one to that individual. |
| Relevant Roles(s) held | Each function whether it is designation as a non SMF Director (executive and non executive) and sole traders. |
| Start and end dates of each role | The dates on which an individual began or stopped performing each relevant role. Individuals who are employed by a firm who have not been assessed as fit and proper to carry out a relevant role would not be displayed as holding an active role. |
| Customer engagement methods
(for customer -facing roles requiring qualification) |
List all the different ways the individual engage online, telephone or face to face). |
| Memberships of relevant accredited bodies (for customer facing requiring qualification). | Enables users to check whether Directory Persons are members of a relevant Accredited Body and the body, or bodies of which they are a member. |
| Regulatory sanctions and prohibitions | Public action (including and not limited to criminal action) taken. This could be through a Final Notice for a prohibition under s. 56 FSMA, withdrawal of approval under s.63 FSMA, penalty under s.63A FSMA or action under s/. 66 FSMA. |
| Date information was last updated | The date when a Firm last updated any of its Directory data. |
| FCA publication process | Information will appear on the Directory as submitted by firms, usually no later than next business day. |
In order to supply this information to the FCA, firms are required to notify via Connect by 31 March 2021.
Firms with more than 10 directory persons are able to submit all data in one upload using the multiple add submission form.
You must ensure that when an individual begins performing a relevant role, when their circumstances change or when they cease to perform a relevant role that you notify the FCA no later than 7 business days after the change occurred.
If there are no changes to a firms Directory persons list, firms will need to notify the FCA that this information is still correct no later than 12 months after the last notification.
A £250 administrative fee will apply if you do not complete a confirmation of accuracy, in cases of late or inaccurate data submissions and where a data error is reported to the FCA or otherwise comes to light. This is an administrative fee not a fine. Where a firm promptly self identifies and corrects their own data, the FCA will not charge the £250 administrative fee.
Further information can be found from the policy statement: https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/policy/ps19-07.pdf.