Information on AIFM applications-November 2023

The questions below pertain to FCA data on applications to be an authorised alternative investment fund manager (AIFM).  Where there is data available in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, please can you tell me: 

1)  For each of the above years, how many applications to become an authorised AIFM did the FCA receive?
      a.  Of these, how many were approved and how many were not? 
      b.  What is the average length of time between application and authorisation?
      c.  Is there a breakdown of this application and authorisation data by month or by quarter?

We can confirm that we hold the requested information, which is set out in Annex A.  

When considering this data, please be aware of the following:

• The average of age in days data represents only those applications which have been concluded and not any application which is ongoing and it represents the elapsed time between receipt and determination of an application.
• The data we have provided reflects Managers of authorised AIFs and Managers of unauthorised AIFs firms currently assigned to our Alternatives and Asset Management portfolios, noting therefore that some firms that were considered Alternatives fund managers, at Authorisation or at any point, have changed their business model and have been reallocated to other supervision portfolios since, so will not be captured. The provided data does not include Variation of Permission (VoP) applications where authorised Firms seek to add AIFM activities to their scope of permission. The provided data is accurate as at 17 November 2023.
• The FCA does not have any target total wait time for these application types and seeks to review all applications as promptly as it can. However, legislation does define certain statutory maximum determination times, such as those set out at section 5(4)[1] of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Regulations 2013 for those seeking Part 4A Authorisation for a new Full Scope firm. The statutory determination times also differ depending on whether a complete or incomplete application is submitted. The FCA publishes an annual report on its website of how it has performed against those obligations set out in statute: https://www.fca.org.uk/data/fca-operating-service-metrics-2021-22[2]. Some firms will also have engaged with the FCA about their application prior to submission.