Simplification Of Approved Persons Regime Welcomed

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

26 February 2007

The UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) on Friday confirmed it will merge the customer functions in its Approved Persons regime into a new single category, following strong support from the industry for the proposal.

The change will eliminate the need for firms to submit a form when an employee already approved for a customer function within that firm wants to move between customer functions or add a customer function to one already held.

This gives firms administrative savings and added flexibility to respond to their business needs. It is the latest in a series of initiatives, implemented over the last year, to streamline and simplify the FSA Handbook.

David Kenmir, FSA Managing Director of Regulatory Services, announced that:

"Through our Handbook review programme and as part of our Better Regulation agenda, the FSA is removing regulations whose costs outweigh the benefits they bring. The merger of customer functions will save firms a further GBP1 million a year."

The merger will come into effect on 1 November 2007, at the same time as other Handbook changes relating to the implementation of the Market in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).

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