We have received the following correspondence from the FCA:

“On 12 August 2021, we sent the below e-mail* informing you of our plans to issue a Covid-19 Impact Survey to firms in Tranche 2 for a fifth time.

We have since identified a discrepancy with the survey links (issued between 23-25 August 2021). These links have now been disabled. 

Firms who have yet to submit their survey can expect to receive a new survey e-mail with an updated link by COB today (27 August).

The small proportion of firms who have already submitted their survey can expect to receive communication from us next week (w/c 30 August) regarding next steps.

Note: all deadlines will be extended accordingly to ensure all firms in Tranche 2 have at least 4 working weeks to complete and submit their survey.

We would be grateful if you could please communicate this update to your members, and we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause them.

Many thanks for your continued engagement.

* Previous email

“Many of you will be aware that we issued the first phase of the Covid-19 Impact Survey in June 2020, 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 2020. Since then we have repeated this survey for both Tranches three more times to understand the change in firms’ financial positions with time. The survey has helped us obtain an accurate view of the impact of Covid-19 and supported our work to mitigate risks of harm to consumers, the market and competition within it.

We are now repeating this survey for a fifth time.

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 23^rd August 2021 – response due by 20^th September 2021

Batch 2: to be sent on 24^th August 2021 – response due by 21^st September 2021

Batch 3: to be sent on 25^th August 2021 – response due by 22^nd September 2021

Batch 4: to be sent on 27^th August 2021 – response due by 24^th September 2021 

We will send a warm-up/introduction email to all the firms at least 1 day prior to them receiving the survey.

This survey will include 10 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

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
• Mortgage Third Party Administrators
• Lifetime Mortgage Providers
• Debt Advice Firms (excl. not-for-profit)
• Non-bank Lenders
• Mortgage Intermediaries
• Motor Finance Providers
• Retail Finance Providers
• Price Comparison Websites
• Retail Mortgage Lenders

Firms will be emailed a link to complete the survey online (not through RegData). 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 consultant) to answer and submit the survey, the link can be forwarded to the required person.

We know firms will be concerned about phishing emails and scams. When they receive the survey, we ask that firms check it is from either FCA@fcanewsletters.org.uk or an @fca.org.uk email address.

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.”