On 28th October 2020, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced that the Treasury has made a statutory instrument to delay, from 9 December 2020 until 31 March 2021, the deadline for solo-regulated firms to have undertaken the first assessment of the fitness and propriety of their Certified staff.

The FCA published a policy statement outlining their finalised rules for the extended guideline.

Finalised Rules

This PS confirms that the FCA will extend the deadline for the following requirements correspondingly from 9 December 2020 to 31 March 2021 as consulted on:

  • the date the Conduct Rules come into force, for staff who are not Senior Managers, Certification Staff or board directors
  • the date by which relevant employees must have received training on the Conduct Rules (this automatically follows from the extension in the previous bullet point)
  • the deadline for submission of information about Directory Persons to the Register
  • references in their rules to the statutory deadline for assessing Certified Persons as fit and proper following agreement with the Treasury