Senior Managers Regime – are you ready?
The Senior Managers & Certification Regime (SMCR) for the remaining financial firms not yet obligated* is going live on 9 December 2019. Yes, a little scary, given that Brexit is still an unknown, MiFID II is still giving everyone the run around, and SFTR is just around the corner too.
If you’re one of the firms affected, are you ready for the extra responsibilities of SMCR? If you’re a senior manager, are you up to speed with your heightened remit, obligation and duties?
The FCA states its aims are to:
- encourage a culture of staff at all levels taking personal responsibility for their actions
- make sure firms and staff clearly understand and can demonstrate where responsibility lies.
Like many regulations, SMCR was born out of failings in previous regimes and financial market misconduct; in trying to increase personal accountability on approved persons and making sure firms apply the correct framework and governance to the function of senior managers, with the assurance they have ‘fit and proper’ personnel in place. In essence, just to make sure firms are run better.
Regulatory reporting controls, governance and ultimately, sign-off, will be key to senior managers. Our ReportShield™ services can help compliance and management within firms meet their regulatory reporting requirements with confidence that independent quality assurance, reconciliation and accuracy testing has been implemented across their active regulatory reporting regimes.
If you have any questions about your SMCR reporting requirements, our regulatory experts can help. Please contact us to find out more.
*These include: investment firms – brokers, securities firms, assets managers, financial advisers).