The FCA and PRA have confirmed changes to the Senior Manager Certification Regime (SMCR), streamlining rules ahead of plans for wider changes which they claim will halve the SMCR’s regulatory burden on firms.
Firms now have up to 12 weeks to submit a senior manager application, rather than needing FCA approval within that period.
The FCA and PRA say the changes will:
- Give firms more time to submit senior manager applications when there has been an unexpected or temporary change
- Remove the need to separately certify people with overlapping functions, which the FCA claims will reduce the total number of certification roles required by around 15%
- Streamline annual checks to certify individuals as ‘fit and proper’
- Make only larger, more complex firms meet enhanced standards, by raising many of the enhanced firm thresholds by 30%, the first time since their introduction in 2019.
- Allow firms more time to report updates to senior manager responsibilities
- Increase how long criminal record checks for senior manager applications are valid for, prior to application submission
- Give firms more time to update the directory, which lists certified staff
- The regulators published their phase 1 proposals to reform the SMCR in July 2025, as well as seeking views on potential changes for the next phase
The changes to the SMCR are part of the FCA’s plans to make regulation simpler and easier to navigate.
Sarah Pritchard, deputy chief executive at the FCA, said: “These joint reforms will keep consumers and markets protected while making the regime more proportionate. We’ve also used our current powers to streamline the regime now, so firms can benefit before future legislation unlocks even more efficiencies”.
The FCA has also been working to speed up SMCR approvals. It’s most recent published quarterly metrics show 99.7% of SMCR applications were determined within the current 3-month statutory deadline, with 94.7% determined within the Government's proposed new 2-month statutory deadline.
The FCA and PRA are currently working with the Government on legislative changes to the regime, including removing the SMCR and increasing flexibility for regulators to reduce the number of senior management functions which require pre-approval.
It first began reviews of the SMCR in December 2022 as part of the government's Edinburgh Reforms.