The 31st March 2021 deadline for firms to certify its Certification Staff, notify the FCA about its Directory Persons and provide Individual Conduct Rules training to its relevant staff (i.e. staff involved in the conduct of regulated activities) is quickly approaching. If you haven’t already done so, the following steps must be taken before the 31st March 2021:
- Identify your Certification Staff, assess them as fit and proper and, if the outcome of the assessment is positive, issue them with a written certificate. Please note that not all firms have Certification Staff. Common Certification Functions include holders of significant management functions (i.e. individuals that head a significant business unit that is involved in the conduct of regulated activities), functions requiring qualifications (e.g. retail investment advisers, mortgage advisers etc.) and CASS oversight function holders.
- Upon certifying the relevant individuals (if applicable to your firm), you are required to notify the FCA by completing a Directory Persons notification on Connect. This notification is to ensure that these individuals appear on the FCA’s Directory. It is to be noted that other non-Certification individuals are to appear on the FCA Directory and should be notified to the FCA on Connect before 31st March 2021. These include Directors that are non-Senior Management Function holders.
- Provide Individual Conduct Rules awareness training to staff involved in the conduct of the firm’s regulated activities. The FCA recommends that Individual Conduct Rules training be tailored to the specific roles and responsibilities of the training recipients and be contextualised to your firm. As a team, we have found that an effective way of delivering tailored, interactive training to the standard expected by the FCA during the current restrictions has been by video conference.