Handbook for PRA & FCA
What is happening to the FSA Handbook?
At legal cutover, the FSA Handbook will be split between the FCA and the PRA to form two new Handbooks, one for the PRA and one for the FCA. Most provisions in the FSA Handbook will be incorporated into the PRA’s Handbook, the FCA’s Handbook, or both, in line with each new regulator’s set of responsibilities and objectives.
The new Handbooks will reflect the new regulatory regime (for example, references to the FSA will be replaced with the appropriate regulator), and in some areas more substantive changes will be made to reflect the existence of the two regulators, their roles and powers. This includes such aspects as the future processes for permissions, passporting, controlled functions, threshold conditions and enforcement powers. The more substantive changes are being consulted on before the PRA and the FCA acquire their legal powers.
Changes to the FSA Handbook as a result of EU legislation and FSA policy initiatives will continue throughout this work. After acquiring their powers, the FCA and the PRA will amend their own suites of policy material as independent bodies in accordance with the processes laid down in the Financial Services Bill, including cooperation between them and external consultation. As set out in the PRA Approach Documents, the PRA will, over time, replace the Handbook with a PRA rulebook.
What does this mean for firms?
This approach to the Handbooks for the FCA and the PRA has been planned to ensure a safe transition for firms and the new regulators as the new regime is introduced.
Firms will have a new regulator or regulators, and will consequently need to assess how the new Handbooks of these bodies will apply to them. Dual regulated firms will need to look to both the PRA and the FCA Handbooks, and FCA-only regulated firms to the FCA Handbook.
Final steps to incorporating the changes in the Handbook
The FSA plan to publish the new FCA and PRA Handbooks online in the month ahead of 1 April, to give firms time to familiarise themselves with the new Handbooks.
Alongside the publication, they will publish material on how to interpret the application of the Handbooks, where this is not dealt with in the Handbooks themselves. The FSA Handbook will remain in force until 1 April.
(Source: FSA)
