The latest data from the Financial Conduct Authority shows the regulator hit half of its authorisations operating service metric between April and June.

The regulator publishes 16 operating service metrics for authorisations every quarter.

It said that the data shows it continues to “make good progress” towards meeting all of its service level targets.

Between April and June 8 of these metrics were green, showing the regulator hit its service level targets in these areas.

Of the remaining metrics, 6 were amber and 2 were red. However, three of the amber metrics were improved on the last quarter and are within 1% of becoming green.

One of the areas where an improvement was seen is Approved Persons. For SMCR-related Approved Persons 94.5% of applications were determined within 3 months, an improvement from the 92.5% in the previous quarter. For AR-related Approved Persons 97.1% were determined within 3 months, an improvement from 82.8% in the previous quarter.

The speed at which new firms were authorised also continued to improve. Between April and June 97% of net firm authorisations were approved within 12 months in comparison to 95.8% in the previous quarter.

One metric which was green last quarter is now amber, but the regulator said this was in a low volume area and was due to one application being determined after the statutory deadline.

Within the data the FCA publishes the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of the range of calendar days taken for determination ibn each category of application.

The latest data shows that most applications were determined well ahead of the statutory deadline.

The metrics are for solo-regulated firms only, and firms which are dual-regulated with the Prudential Regulation Authority are contained within the PRA metrics.

The FCA will publish its performance for the next quarter in November.