Sentinel Regulatory Services news & information
FCA Authorisation Metrics Q2 2025/26
The latest “FCA Authorisations operating service metrics 2025/26 Q2” have just been published and read somewhat like a Soviet era election result with, “99.5% of applications across all metric areas were determined within the statutory deadline” and “Our performance shows 13 metrics are green, 1 is amber and none are red.” The amber metric (cancellation of FCA permissions) being attributed to firms and most definitely not the FCA!
The FCA’s operational efficiency is of significant interest to firms assessing their business and making critical decisions: whether to become FCA authorised, register as an AR, register a member of staff, change control, or undertake a variation of permission. As the old cliché goes “time is money.” The FCA measures nineteen distinct categories of which we have selected seven of interest below:
3-month Statutory Deadline
· Approved Persons – SMCR related
1,366 cases determined in 28 days (median), Upper quartile – 43 days
· Approved Persons – AR related
1,686 cases determined in 26 days (median), Upper quartile – 37 days
6-month (complete application)/12 months (incomplete) Statutory Deadline
· New Firm Authorisations
279 cases determined in 118 days (median), Upper quartile – 188 days
· Variation of Permissions
316 cases determined in 69 days (median), Upper quartile – 107 days
· FCA Permission cancellations
811 cases determined in 17 days (median), Upper quartile – 104 days
60 working days of receipt
· Change in Control
290 cases determined in 36 days (median), Upper quartile – 65 days
Several categories above disclose a significant variance between the median length of time for approval and the upper quartile (slowest) processing times. This likely reflects application quality and additional FCA review.
The median AR Approved Person notification of 26 days is in line with our experience for a successfully completed AR application.
It is also worth noting that Q2 saw 278 new firm authorisations against 811 firm cancellations. There may be many underlying explanations but let us hope it is not the spluttering flame of enterprise being slowly extinguished as firms leave for more favourable climes.
The FCA’s more detailed analysis may be found here:
https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/data/authorisations-operating-service-metrics-2025-26-q2.pdf
Finally, importantly, the statutory deadlines are being reduced, which should not cause the FCA too much stress given their performance reported above. The new targets are:
· 2 months for Approved/SMCR staff,
· 4 months for complete and 10 months for incomplete FCA Authorisation applications,
· 3 months for complete and 6 months for incomplete Variation of Permission applications.
It will be interesting to see whether the reported processing times drop as a result of this initiative.
