The FCA has today published consultation documents on its approach to authorising firms and its competition rules to see if its powers need to be made more transparent to users.

The ‘Approach to Authorisation’ and ‘Approach to Competition’ documents are the second and third in a series of documents that provide more in depth coverage of the FCA’s approach to regulation. The previous series ‘Approach to Consumers’ was published in November.

The regulator is carrying out the consultation to see if its rules and powers on authorisation and competition are too opaque and need to be made clearer to aid understanding. Both approach documents are open for consultation until 12 March. The final approach documents will be published next year.

The ‘Approach to Authorisation’ document looks at:

- Whether there is a clear understanding of the Threshold Conditions that firms and individuals must meet for authorisation and, if not, where the FCA could be more specific.
- Whether there are any views on how the FCA supports firms and individuals to meet the minimum standards and how this could be improved.
- Whether the FCA has suggested the correct commitments to firms making authorisation applications and what other commitments could be made.
- Whether the FCA has prioritised the right strategic goals and if there are any additional goals which would add value to the FCA’s work.

The ‘Approach to Competition’ document looks at:
- Whether the FCA’s competition remit, powers and aims are clearly understood and what more could be done to explain them.
- What indicators of potential harm should be considered in the FCA’s preliminary assessment of competition.
- What other tools could be used when designing remedies to address a lack of competition.
- Whether any further clarification of the FCA’s approach to competition is needed.

Andrew Bailey, FCA chief executive said:“As part of our Mission, we committed to being more open and transparent about how we regulate and how we make decisions.

“Authorisation is the gateway for firms that want to operate in the financial services industry. We use it to prevent harm from occurring by ensuring that all firms meet our minimum standards before they are allowed to start doing business.  It’s vital that we get it right to keep out firms that are not up to scratch and allow the right ones through.

“Effective competition in financial services benefits consumers and firms. We are one of the few financial regulators in the world with a core objective to promote competition and it applies to all the work we do.”