Recommendation 84

We heard that the FCA’s approach to measuring its compliance with these targets does not always reflect the true time taken to complete the authorisation process. Witnesses told us that the regulators exclude from their metrics intervals when the regulator or authorised firm is responding to further clarifications or information requests. Caroline Wagstaff told us that “once the clock starts ticking, every time you are asked a question, the clock stops and does not start again until the answer is back.” 140 She added that: “The lived experience is not the 90 days … That could be 90 days stretched over a whole year.” 141 The British Insurance Brokers’ Association told us that, although the FCA’s first secondary objective report claimed that over 98 per cent of authorisation cases were being assessed within statutory deadlines in the final quarter of 2023/2024, 142 the “experience for some firms is that the FCA is falling short.” 143