| Link(s): | Handbook Notice 97 (fca.org.uk) |
Context
The FCA has published Handbook Notice 97 which lists a series of changes that the regulator’s Board has made to its rules and other materials at its March meeting. For those firms subject to paying only minimum fees the changes will soften the impact of regulatory fees and levies proposals for 2022/23 which were set down in Consultation paper CP21/33.
Key points to note
- In CP21/33 the FCA had proposed increasing the minimum fee from £1,151 to £2,200 in order that it ‘more fully reflects the costs associated with FCA supervision’.
- BIBA’s response to CP21/33 had highlighted that regulated firms had not been immune from the impacts of the pandemic and called for the increase to be phased in. The FCA responded to this call and the minimum fee for the 2022/23 regulatory year will now be £1,750, before rising to the target amount of £2,200 in 2023/24.
- The FCA has also made the decision to exempt firms that will be paying the A0 minimum fee (of £1,750) from also paying the minimum fee for consumer credit firms under category CC2 (full permission consumer credit). Prior to these changes, firms in the A fee blocks also paid the relevant minimum fee or above for their consumer credit permission(s). For 2021/22 the smallest firms would have paid £1,151 under the A0 and £750 under the CC2 activity groups, thus creating a total FCA fee of £1,901.
Next actions
The net effect of these changes means that firms which only pay the minimum fees should see a smaller increase than anticipated in their FCA-specific fee for the 2022/23 regulatory year (£1,750, up from £1151), and that some firms will see a reduction. These changes apply in respect of FCA fees alone and do not cover the fee requirements for the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, the Financial Ombudsman Service and others.