Source · Select Committees · Treasury Committee
Recommendation 19
19
Paragraph: 119
The information the FCA has made available on how it is performing against its service...
Conclusion
The information the FCA has made available on how it is performing against its service standards shows a deteriorating picture. The FCA has a reputation for being too slow in its authorisation work, and this will inevitably hold back British fintech companies and crypto firms as well as larger firms. When the FCA publishes its next update on the service standards it should write to us, outlining any areas where it is still not meeting its statutory and voluntary timelines, and setting out its strategy for closing any gaps.
Paragraph Reference:
119
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
We recently wrote to the Committee alongside the publication of our Annual Report and Operating Service Metrics (previously referred to as our Service Standards), in light of this recommendation. We will keep the Committee updated on the progress we are making to reduce authorisation queues Progress includes a successful additional recruitment of case officers, improvements to processes and a reduction in the time taken to allocate cases to case officers. This progress has reduced Authorisations’ overall caseload by more than 40% since December 2021, from c.12,500 to c.7,000 cases at the end of July 2022. We will continue to publicly report our performance against service metrics. I look forward to providing a further update to the Committee at our next accountability hearing. As set out to you in that letter, while we are committed to further improving our processes, the increased detailed scrutiny we are committed to carrying out at our gateway can mean that some applications take longer to process. Rigorous assessment at the gateway is essential for us to fulfil our consumer protection objective.