In March 2017, the FCA extended the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR) to include non-executive directors, the regime will now be implemented for solo-regulated firms, those only regulated by the FCA, not those who fall under the remit of both the FCA and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), on 9 December 2019.
Claire Cross, a partner at Corker Binning in London, says that Mark Steward, director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, has always been keen to stress that he wants enforcement to be judged on its success in attributing personal responsibility to senior managers rather than just trotting out fines against firms and allowing senior personnel to avoid action.
She says: “This first case has emphasised the fact that in order to successfully comply with the SMCR it is critical to set the tone from the top,” adding that the regulator is clear that the standard required of senior managers, especially those in the very most upper tier, is more exacting that that imposed on other employees.
Concluding, Cross believes “we will continue to see the FCA to continue to hand down heavy penalties, especially in circumstances where the companies involved are high profile or have a large market value”.
Read the full article in CDR here, behind a paywall.