We are publishing our final rules on regulatory references.
In this Policy Statement (PS), we report on the main issues arising from our consultation Strengthening accountability in banking and insurance: regulatory references: CP15/31 and publish the final rules.
References are a key tool in allowing firms to share relevant information on individuals to support their assessment of potential new recruits as fit and proper.
These rules form part of the new accountability regimes introduced in March 2016 for deposit takers and Prudential Regulation Authority investment firms and Solvency II firms and large non-directive insurers.
Who this applies to
Section 2 of the PS will be of interest to banks and insurers, as well as individual candidates for regulatory roles in the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR) and the Senior Insurance Managers Regime (SIMR).
The changes set out in Section 3 will be of interest to all authorised firms.
In general, we expect that appointed representatives of banks will be affected by these proposals in the same way as appointed representatives (AR) of non-banks. This is because the Approved Persons Regime currently applies to individuals employed by an AR of a bank.
Consumers may be interested in how individual accountability is being enhanced in banks and insurers. More generally, the changes in this PS form part of our broader initiative to try to improve the culture and governance of banks and insurers, which should bring significant benefits to consumers.
What you need to do
Firms will need to ensure that they are ready to implement the new regulatory reference rules on 7 March 2017.