The Directory
Tuesday 9 January 2024
Introduction
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) maintains the Financial Services Register which provides a public record of the firms and individuals approved by the FCA and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) i.e. Senior Management Functions (SMFs).
FCA has introduced new requirements1 for credit unions to contribute information to a new public register, ‘the Directory’ which will make information public on additional individuals who are not approved. The system was supposed to go live to the public in March 2020 but this was delayed until the end of November 2020 due to coronavirus .
Scope
Credit unions will need to report information for the following individuals who will be referred to as ‘Directory Persons’:
- All certified staff (those holding a certification function under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR)
- Directors who do not hold a Senior Management Function (SMF) – Executive and non-executive
- Sole traders or appointed representatives where they are require a qualification to undertake business with clients (such as mortgage advisors).
N.B. For the absence of doubt. If a person holds a Senior Management Function you do not need to provide their details for the directory. These people are already present on the Financial Services Register.
Information
Credit unions need to report the data below for all relevant (see above) individuals who have served with the credit union at any point from 10 December 2018:
| Information | Further details |
| Directory Persons’ details |
|
| Relevant Role(s) held | Eg: Which Certification function they hold or whether they are a credit union director |
| Start and end dates of each role | Dates the Directory Person started and ended their role. |
| Unique identifiers |
Or
|
| For customer facing roles requiring qualification only (e.g. a mortgage advisor) | |
| Type of business the individual is qualified to undertake (if requiring qualification) | In line with the FCA’s Training and Competence rules specifically. More information can be in the FCA rulebook here. |
| Different customer engagement methods offered by the individual | Face to face, telephone and/or online. |
| Work place location | Post code(s)* – Not mandatory in the case of vulnerable individuals |
| Membership of Professional Bodies | Information about the accredited bodies the individual is a member of. |
*not published.
It’s worth noting that other information will be available on the Directory but will be provided by the FCA, such as:
- Firm Details
- Restrictions applying to the firm’s regulated activities
- Regulatory sanctions and prohibitions
- Date the information was last updated.
When to provide the information:
For the first time
Credit unions have a deadline of 9 March 2020 to have completed the process of providing data to the directory and need to include all relevant individuals who have served with the credit union from 10 December 2018.
Credit unions will be able to access the systems (within Connect) needed to upload the data on 9 September 2019 at the earliest. FCA recommends firms provide the data at their earliest convenience.
Ongoing updates
Credit unions need to update the directory within 7 days of an individual beginning or ceasing to perform a relevant role.
If there are no changes to the credit union’s population of Directory persons, the credit union will need to confirm that the information is still correct within 12 months of their last notification (detailed in the next section). FCA states that they will send automated reminder emails to the credit union’s Connect user ahead of the notification due date.
Annual attestation Requirement
Administrative Fee
A fee of £250 will be levied by the FCA for late or inaccurate data submissions. In the case of inaccuracies, this will be where an error is reported to the FCA or otherwise comes to light.
How to provide the information
FCA has stated that there will be both single and multiple-entry submission facilities available within Connect. The multiple-entry facility enables to firms to upload a number of Directory Persons through a spreadsheet file.
ABCUL has met with the FCA to run through the process of uploading this information to The Directory. The slides (including screenshots) for this session and the template multiple entry submission file are attached below. You will need to:
- Open the PDF document at the bottom of this guide
- Log in to the FCA connect system here
- Click Start an application
- Select “Directory Persons” from the list
- Follow the instructions given with reference to the PDF document and the guidance below.
Key notes to completing the directory
Start dates
If the individual started their role before 7 March 2016, then you will need to put the date as 7 March 2016. The system will recognise if they have been an approved person before and will amend the start date that is published on the final directory (if applicable).
National Insurance Number and/or Passport Number + Nationality
For each Directory person Credit unions need to provide person a National Insurance Number if they are UK resident. If you not providing a passport number do not provide a nationality – leave this blank. The system takes these two fields together and will assume you have neglected to provide a passport number if you provide a nationality without a passport number.
If the person has an Individual Reference Number and has been registered in the past, they may have previously provided a passport number. In these cases you will still need to provide a passport number as well as the national insurance number.
Don’t know your directors Individual Reference Number (IRN)?
Check the Financial Services Register > Search for your credit union > Individuals > Select ‘previous involvement’ > Click ‘update list of individuals’ for everyone who has ever held an IRN for your credit union.
Directors
All credit unions need to provide information about their directors and should use the role: “Director of a firm who is not a certification employee or a SMF”. This is encircled in red below on the screenshot.
Certification Functions
Update 20/02/2020
FCA are now asking credit unions to submit their certification functions under the heading “[PRA CF] Material risk taker” i.e. ticking the box encircled in red below:
This is technically incorrect as this should state “Significant Risk Taker”, however, FCA are going to correct this error post submission.
If you have any questions at all please contact daniel.arrowsmith@abcul.org
Functions requiring a qualification
These should be completed as “[FCA CF] functions requiring qualifications” and any relevant activities that they perform.
Data Validation
FCA states that there will be some data validation such as checking the format of the data and whether or not any individual prohibitions would prevent an individual performing a role.
Single Submission and Amendments
- Please see the FCA user guide for single add and amend here
Multiple Submission and Amendments
- Please see the FCA user guide for multiple add and Amend here.
- The most up to date spreadsheet templates can be found here
The above guide currently specifies that multiple submission entries should be saved as a Comma Separated Values (.CSV) file and should be titled “‘FCA_Directory_Persons_Multiple_Add.csv’” or “FCA_Directory_Persons_Multiple_Amend.csv” depending on whether you are adding or amending directory persons.
Signing the submitted forms
You will not need to print off and sign the submitted forms, the user guide states: “In the final version of the declaration, firms will not be required to print or sign the forms. This text is standard across all Connect forms but is not required for the Directory Persons form because it is automatically retained in Connect”
More information
For any additional information please see the FCA’s Directory page here: https://www.fca.org.uk/firms/directory-persons Please contact your Membership Relationship Manager on members@abcul.org or contact Natalie McQuade (natalie.mcquade@abcul.org / 0161 832 3694 / 07538846211) if you require any assistance.
ABCUL Lobbying
As a result of member feedback and ABCUL’s response FCA has extended their submission deadline from 1 business day to 7 business days from when an individual begins or leaves their role in the credit union.
Further guidance is available for download on the ABCUL Resource Library.