The FCA has asked us to inform all our client firms about the upcoming Covid-19 survey. See below.

“Many of you will be aware that we issued the first phase of the Covid-19 Impact Survey in June, covering around 13,000 firms across 15 Supervision portfolios (Tranche 1), and then rolled this out to a further 9,500 firms in 21 portfolios (Tranche 2) at the beginning of August. The survey is helping us to obtain a more accurate view of the impact of Covid-19 and supporting our work to mitigate risks of harm to consumers, the market and competition within it. As advised previously, we repeated this survey for Tranche 1 to understand the change in firms’ financial positions with time, and are now doing the same for Tranche 2. 

We are planning to send this survey to the relevant firms in Tranche 2, some of which may be members of your associations, on one of the following dates: 

Batch 1: to be sent on 3 Nov – response due by 27 Nov

Batch 2: to be sent on 5 Nov – response due by 1 Dec

Batch 3: to be sent on 6 Nov – response due by 2 Dec

Batch 4: to be sent on 10 Nov – response due by 4 Dec 

We will send a warm up/introduction email to all the firms at least a day prior to them receiving the survey. 

We are including an extra two questions to cover the potential impact of Brexit, as the end of the transition period is nearing. Therefore, this repeat survey will include 12 questions in total, designed to give us information about the following important areas:

• Liquidity/ cash availability and needs
• Recent financial performance
• Scale of business activity
• Access to government schemes
• Impact of Brexit 

The survey will be sent to all firms in the following Tranche 2 portfolios unless they satisfy specific exclusion criteria:

• Exchanges
• Asset Management
• Wholesale brokers
• Wholesale banks
• Principal trading firms
• Wholesale (other)
• Life third party administrators
• Multilateral Trading Facilities and
• Organised Trading Facilities
• Alternatives
• Benchmarks
• Claims management
• Lloyd’s & London market intermediaries
• Retail mortgage lenders
• Mortgage third party administrators
• Lifetime mortgage providers
• Debt advice firms
• Non-bank lenders
• Mortgage intermediaries
• Motor finance providers
• Retail finance providers
• Price comparison websites 

Firms will be emailed a link to complete the survey online (not through Gabriel). It is designed to be easy to complete even via a mobile phone and we expect that most firms will not need more than an hour to complete. The link we send to firms will be unique to each firm. If firms need a different individual within their organisation (or a third party who works for you, e.g. a consultant) to answer and submit the survey, the link can be forwarded to the required person. 

Completion of the survey is mandatory under section 165 of the Financial Services & Markets Act (FSMA) 2000. We may exercise our powers under FSMA for firms who do not respond. We have designed this survey so that it is quick and simple to complete. However, if due to exceptional circumstances a firm cannot access its financial information, they will need to ensure that they complete the questions where the relevant information is available. 

At the FCA, our core responsibilities include protecting consumers and enhancing the integrity of the UK financial markets. We know that financial stresses can put additional pressure on firms and so we are seeking to understand the effect Covid-19 is having on the finances of the firms we regulate and better guide our supervisory actions.”