The Requirement of a Regulatory Business Plan

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In an application for authorisation, Financial Services or Payment Services are required to submit a significant amount of information, essentially describing the services that will be offered and the arrangements that will be operated to support service provision. The required information is detailed in the respective FCA application form - there are different application forms for the various types oI application available through the FCA Connect Service (https://www.fca.org.uk/firms/connect).

Connect is the FCA online system that you can use to submit applications and notifications for:

• Approved persons
• Appointed representatives
• AIFMD applications
• Annual client asset report (as per SUP 3)
• Benchmark administrators 
• Cancellations of firm authorisation or registration
• Change in control notifications (if your firm is only regulated by the FCA)
• Claims management 
• Consumer buy-to-let registration
• Electronic money institutions: authorise, register or cancel
• Firm details and attestation
• MiFID II notifications
• Money Laundering Regulation New Registrations 
• NPPR Notifications (excluding EEA AIFMs marketing funds under Regulation 57)
• NPPR Material Change Notifications (excluding EEA AIFMs marketing funds under Regulation 57)
• Part 4A permission (dual regulated firms still have to use the paper forms)
• Payment institutions: authorise, register or cancel
• PSD agents: add, amend or remove
• PSD2 Notifications
• Sensitive business names
• Suspicious transaction and order reports (STORs)
• Variation of permission
• Waivers and CRR permissions

The application forms comprise different sections including: a ‘programme of operations’ (to describe the services that will be provided), business plan (covering the market proposition and financial forecast), structural organisation (the roles, business functions and outsourcing arrangements), safeguarding (the arrangements to safeguard customer funds), and governance (covering internal control, risk management and operation of the Board). There are also a number of IT and fraud related sections that will also need to be addressed. The preparation of a Regulatory Business Plan will help the applicant firm collate all of this information in a single document. This will facilitate a more efficient process for preparing the application content and should also assist the FCA in their assessment of the application.

Defining a Regulatory Business Plan: A Central Element in FCA Authorisation

A Regulatory Business Plan (RBP) serves as a comprehensive manuscript designed to compile most of the requisite data for submission to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) during the authorisation application process. Positioned as the linchpin of your application dossier, the RBP should be flanked by fully executed FCA forms and any obligatory ancillary documentation.

To streamline both the formulation and subsequent evaluation stages, it is judicious to construct the RBP in such a manner that its architecture mirrors that of the FCA’s own application template. For added clarity, embedding cross-references within the RBP that point to germane sections in the FCA form is highly advantageous.

While the initial submission packet necessitates only a circumscribed array of documents, it's imperative that a complete set be readily accessible for prompt dispatch to the FCA upon request during the adjudicatory phase. Within the RBP, articulate a detailed inventory of these documents, indicating their operational relevance within the corporate ecosystem.

Why prepare a Regulatory Business Plan?

The alternative to preparing an RBP is to prepare a set of separate documents (which some regulators may prefer). Working on a single central document when collating an application for authorisation is significantly easier than preparing separate documents and trying to ensure consistency between them. Feedback from the FCA has also confirmed that a well prepared RBP, with consistent and coherent descriptions of the proposed business and arrangements, supports an efficient assessment process.

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