The FCA has advised upcoming changes to authorisation application fees as follows:
“On 24 January we’ll be simplifying our authorisation application fees including Variation of Permission. Today we’ve published Policy Statement 22/1, which follows our consultation in November 2020 and feedback on the responses in April 2021. We’ll be introducing fewer pricing categories.
The changes include the introduction of:
- A lower charge when firms that apply for the credit-related permissions of debt counselling and debt adjusting request restrictions on their permitted activity because it is ancillary to their main business.
- A charge for lead generator Claims Management Companies applying for permission to seek out people who may have a claim.
Further work is required before we introduce the new charge of £250 for stand-alone long Form A applications both for Senior Manager Functions and for Controlled Functions for Appointed Representatives. This change was part of our consultation. We’ll still be introducing that fee and will update you on our plans in due course.”
A summary of the changes can be found here and the full Policy Statement (PS22/1) is here.



FCS Transitional Arrangements
Steve Bailey Compliance Update
As you will be aware the Financial Services Authority ceased to be and the Financial Conduct Authority took over the regulation of financial advice firms on 01 April 2013.
The FSA issued PS13/05 last week which includes updated rules and transition arrangements. The policy statement itself is 88 pages but the ‘appendix (3)’ that accompanies it is a mere 1990 pages so you must excuse us for not as yet absorbing every word. The document can be seen here.