Context
The FCA has announced that it will be issuing a request to repeat the completion of the Covid-19 impact survey to enable it to fully understand the change in firms’ financial positions over time. This follows the first phase of the survey which was issued to approximately 22,500 firms over two tranches and ran from June to August 2020. The survey was repeated for the 13,000 firms in tranche one in September 2020 and the request being issued in November will be to the firms in tranche two, which were originally approached in early August.
Key points to note
- The survey will be emailed to relevant firms during the period of 3–10 November 2020 with responses due to be returned between 27 November and 4 December.
- Firms included will receive an introductory email at least one day in advance of their receiving the survey.
- The survey will have two additional questions which will cover the potential impact of Brexit as the UK nears the end of the transition period.
- There are 12 questions in total which cover:
- Liquidity/cash availability and needs
- Recent financial performance
- Scale of business activity
- Access to government schemes
- Impact of Brexit
- Firms will be emailed a link which is unique to the firm. The link will enable the survey to be completed online; the survey is designed to be easy to complete even via a mobile phone.
- It is expected that it should not take more than one hour to complete.
- The data provided will be used by the FCA, alongside existing data, to support ongoing work.
- It is expected that the FCA will conduct a further phase of the survey which will follow in due course.
- The survey will be issued from either FCA@fcanewsletters.org.uk or an fca.org.uk email address.
Next Steps
Completion of the survey is mandatory so it is important to ensure that the email is actioned should it be received. The FCA is able to exercise its powers under FSMA for firms which do not respond. Any questions or queries on the survey can be referred to the FCA contact centre.