02 March 2016

Bank of England: Strengthening individual accountability in banking

In CP1/16 the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) proposed a series of amendments to the Conduct Rules: Notifications and Applications and Notifications Parts of the PRA Rulebook and Forms C, D and L. The aim of the proposed amendments was to update these rules and forms in light of the proposed changes to the Senior Managers and Certification Regimes (SM&CR) in the Bank of England and Financial Services Bill (the Bill).

In particular, the proposed removal of section 64B(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA), which would have required banks, building societies, credit unions and PRA-designated investment firms, collectively referred to as ‘relevant authorised persons’ in section 71A of FSMA as amended by the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013 (‘Banking Reform Act’), to notify the PRA and/or FCA if they knew or suspected that an individual performing a Senior Management Function (SMF) (‘senior manager’) or otherwise subject to the regulators’ conduct rules had failed to comply with any such rule.

Separately, in CP29/15 the PRA proposed to amend the definition of ‘significant risk taker’ in the PRA’s Certification Parts, which defines the functions that fall into scope of the PRA’s Certification regime. The proposed amendment sought to align the definition of ‘significant risk taker’ more closely to the definition of ‘material risk taker’ (MRT) in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 604/2014 (MRTs Regulation) and the PRA’s Remuneration rules. The amendment will further the PRA’s policy aim of aligning the scope of the Certification regime as closely as possible with the MRT population.

Appendix 1 of this policy statement contains:

• the revised final rules in Conduct Rules: Notifications;
• amended Forms C, D, and L; and
• the amended definition of ‘significant risk taker’ in the Certification rules.

Full information

Policy statement

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