RegulationAug 26 2015

FCA blames ‘complex cases’ for slower processing times

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FCA blames ‘complex cases’ for slower processing times

The Financial Conduct Authority has blamed ‘complex cases’ for the increase in the minimum time it takes to authorise retail firms.

The regulator’s latest quarterly key performance indicator report has revealed the minimum time taken to authorise retail firms has risen three-fold to six weeks.

The FCA blamed the rising waits on the complexity of cases being received and resources being diverted to other projects, adding that further increases are expected in the future.

The latest figures compares to just a two week minimum that the FCA reported for the previous quarter, although it also represents a return to the same minimum time taken during the last three months of 2014.

Meanwhile, the average processing time for retail firm application authorisation was also up, to around 17 weeks between April and June, from the 13 weeks reported between January and March this year.

The report stated: “Applications received across wholesale and retail firm types have increased significantly year-on-year. Despite process and productivity improvements average processing time is expected to rise over future quarters.”

However, the maximum time it took to authorise retail firms decreased slightly, from 51 weeks between January and March to 50 weeks between April and June.

An increase in complex application authorisations also led to a drop in the volume of approvals, from around 160 during in the first quarter to 155 during in the second quarter.

The FCA added that no applications were refused over the last three months, but around 6 per cent of firms had withdrawn their applications during the period.

Both the implementation of the at-retirement reforms and closure of Sesame’s investment network could have led to rising waiting times since April, with the latter change meaning 350 firms changed their permissions, with 105 becoming directly authorised through Bankhall and another 69 leaving entirely.

peter.walker@ft.com