Wed, Nov 11, 2020

Deadline for Reporting of Directory Persons is Approaching

The Directory, which was introduced under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR), is a new public register of individuals who carry out specific roles in UK financial service but are not Senior Managers and therefore not approved by the FCA. This includes individuals who are involved in regulatory activities, are customer facing, could cause significant harm to a firm and/or undertake significant back office functions. Individuals that need to be reported for the Directory, or Directory Persons, are:

  • All certified staff
  • Directors who are not performing Senior Manager functions – both executive and non-executive
  • Sole traders
  • Appointed representatives of SM&CR firms who are customer facing and require qualifications under the training and competence rules

Firms will be responsible for submitting data to the FCA on Directory Persons.

Timing of submission of Directory Reports

The Directory goes live on December 14, 2020 and to appear on this date, single entry submissions should be submitted by December 9, 2020. Data will be displayed incrementally as it is submitted by firms after this date. FCA solo regulated firms have until March 31, 2021 to submit their Directory Persons data via Connect if they use a single-entry submission form, but will need to submit earlier if using the multiple entry submission form.

  • The FCA has already contacted around 2,000 firms who it believes will want to use the multiple entry submission form based on the number of Directory Persons they employ. If you have heard from the FCA, you will already be aware of your submission time slot.
  • If firms have not been contacted by the FCA about a multiple submission entry time slot, but have more than 10 Directory Persons and want to use the multiple entry submission form, there are pre-set time slots for firms to submit their data:
    • Firms submitting before the earliest publication date (December 14, 2020) should submit between November 26 and December 4. Please note that firms can use the single submission form to submit up to December 9 and their data will appear from mid-December.
    • Firms submitting after the earliest publication date but before the deadline should submit between January 11 and March 18.  Firms can use the single submission form to submit up to 31 March 2021 deadline.

The FCA webpage explaining the deadlines and time slots is here.  

The Regulator has issued a guide on how to submit multiple entry submissions which can be found here.

Individuals in Certified Functions From December 9 Who Have Left a Firm Before Being Certified

We want to explain a point that has caused some confusion within the industry and has been recently clarified by the FCA—whether firms should notify the FCA of staff who were employed on  December 9 2019 in Certified Functions, but have since left the firm and were not certified before doing so, as firms have until March 31 2021 to certify staff. 

The FCA clarified that only individuals who have been certified within their firm need to be reported as Directory Persons. Therefore, firms will not need to report individuals who were in Certified Functions but had not been certified at the time of reporting. 

Businesses That Are Winding Down

Please also note that firms that cancel their permissions before March 31 do not need to submit Directory Persons data. However, if it is likely that a firm’s permission will not be cancelled by the FCA before March 31, the firm should prepare to submit any information required for Directory Persons. 

Next Steps 

Firms need to:

  • Complete their certification of individuals in certified functions
  • Prepare their data on Directory Persons for submission to the FCA
  • Decide how they will submit – by single entry form or multiple entry submission forms
  • Decide on the timescales and, where relevant, time slots, they will aim for

If you have any further questions or need assistance, please feel free to contact us.



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