We report our Authorisations metrics quarterly to provide greater transparency of our performance. This data covers April to June 2026.
Our first publication of operating service metrics for the 2026/27 financial year, including the voluntary targets where they apply, shows 7 metrics are green, 2 amber and 3 red for Q1.
Download Authorisations operating service metrics 2026/27 Q1 (PDF)
This quarter, we have expanded our reporting to include Adjacent Variations of Permission, improving transparency and providing a more comprehensive view of Authorisations performance. This category, which is subject to a voluntary target of determining complete applications within 3 months and incomplete applications within 6 months, achieved 94.2% (amber) performance in its first reported quarter.
The areas where we did not meet our targets were New Firm Authorisations, Adjacent Variations of Permission, 3/4MLD and 5MLD, and Payment Services & E-Money Authorisations. In these areas, the breaches resulted from a combination of operational challenges, applications needing greater scrutiny, and the tighter deadlines we are working towards.
The results continue to reflect the more ambitious standards we have introduced. By reducing target processing times for certain application types, we have deliberately raised the bar for performance, meaning published results may show greater challenge against targets despite continued strong operational delivery.
Across all published metrics, 97.9% of cases were determined within the applicable deadline during Q1 2026/27, up from 97.5% in Q4 2025/26.
Notes on the metrics and methodology
These metrics are for solo-regulated firms. The FCA and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) work closely to authorise dual-regulated firms. The metrics for the authorisation of dual-regulated firms can be found on the Prudential Regulation Authority’s website.
The 3/4MLD and 5MLD operating service metrics for Q2, Q3 and Q4 2025/26 have been corrected following the identification of an issue in how legislative timescales were interpreted and reported. The correction affects a small number of cases, relative to the overall volume of cases determined, which were previously measured against working days rather than calendar days. This issue was noted in our FCA operating service metrics 2025/26 publication, which accompanied our Annual report and accounts 2025/26. Given the nature of some aspects of the operating service metrics and the small number of applications in some categories, they can be subject to change.
We publish the lower quartile, median, and upper quartile of the range of calendar days taken for determination in each category of application. These are end-to-end timings measured from receipt of an application to determination. This shows that most applications are determined significantly ahead of the new deadlines. Applications that are complete and comprehensive are more likely to be determined in line with the new targets.
From Q3 2025/26, we updated our RAG (Red, Amber, Green) thresholds, with Green now starting at 95% instead of 98%; this change does not apply to Change in Control (CIC), for which the threshold remains at 100%.
This brings our Authorisations metrics in line with the rest of our data publications and with the PRA’s methodology.
The complexity of some cases, including those related to 3/4MLD firms, means that we will not always meet our statutory or voluntary targets. In these cases, it is right that we take the time to make sure there is greater scrutiny and engagement with the firms involved.
Firms should look at our Authorisations pages and our examples of good practice and areas for improvement for guidance.