Near-final rules for extension of SMCR to insurers and brokers published

Near-final rules for the extension of the Senior Managers & Certification Regime (SMCR) to all financial services firms, including insurers and insurance intermediaries, have been published today by the PRA and the FCA.  The FCA has also confirmed that the extension of the SMCR to insurance intermediaries will take effect from 9 December 2019.

The FCA has published the following three policy statements:

• PS18/14: Extending the Senior Managers & Certification Regime to FCA Firms - Feedback to CP17/25 and CP17/40, and near-final rules;
• PS18/15: Extending the Senior Managers & Certification to insurers – Feedback to CP17/26 and CP17/41 and near-final rules; and
• PS18/16: Insurers and FCA solo-regulated firms Final Guidance: the Duty of Responsibility for insurers and FCA solo-regulated firms.

It is also proposing to introduce a new directory of financial services workers (see CP18/19: Introducing the Directory). The directory will be a public register designed to help consumers and firms check the status and history of individuals working in financial services.  The deadline for responses to the consultation is 5 October 2018.

The PRA has published PS15/18: Strengthening individual accountability in insurance: Extension of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime to insurers.  PS15/18 provides feedback on proposals for extending the SMCR to insurers and contains:

• final rules for the extension of the SMCR to insurers by amending the Senior Insurance Managers Regime (SIMR) (Appendix 1);
• an updated Supervisory Statement (SS) 35/15 ‘Strengthening individual accountability in insurance’ (Appendix 2), and terminology updates to other existing SSs
• a consolidated Statement of Policy ‘Conditions, time limits, and variations of approval’ (Appendix 3); and
• the streamlined set of forms for the SMCR and amendments to Part 4A permissions forms (Appendix 4).

Past publications we have prepared on this topic are:

• a two page “at a glance” guide (click here) to the FCA’s proposals for insurance intermediaries; and
• a more detailed briefing (click here) which considers the implications for insurance intermediaries and their employees of the FCA’s proposals;
• proposals for extending the SMCR to insurers set out in PRA CP14/7 and FCA CP17/26 (click here).

We will publish our more detailed thoughts in due course.  As the new regime for insurers comes into force from 10 December 2018, projects to implement the changes should be well underway.  Our experience from working with our banking and insurance clients suggests that planning by intermediaries for implementation of the SMCR should also begin now.