The retail investment sector continued to dominate attestations (or undertakings) required issued by the Financial Conduct Authority between January and March.

Out of 22 attestations requested by the FCA in the quarter, 14 were related to retail investments.

Of these, 13 were portfolio supervision of firms and one was a dedicated supervision of a firm.

An attestation is a firm’s formal statement or undertaking that it will take, or has already taken, an action requested by the regulator.

Attestations are an FCA intervention to protect consumers.

The FCA uses attestations as a supervisory tool to ensure that regulated firms, an senior individuals within then, are clearly accountable for taking the actions the regulator requires.

Attestations are most commonly requested for:

• Notification – The most appropriate senior individual(s) within a firm attests to notify the FCA if an emerging risk changes in its nature or magnitude. They are therefore responsible for ensuring the firm appropriately monitors the risk.
• Undertaking – The most appropriate senior individual(s) within a firm attests to complete actions within a specified timescale, however they are not required to confirm to the FCA that they have been completed.
• Self-certification – The most appropriate senior individual(s) within a firm attests to undertake the completion of actions within a specified timescale. They are also required to confirm that they have been completed.
• Verification – The most appropriate senior individual(s) within a firm attests to undertake the completion of actions within a specified timescale. They are then required to provide verification that the risks identified have been mitigated and resolved.

Wholesale financial markets also saw a number of attestations, with six issued by the regulator over the quarter.

The quarter saw a total of 22 attestations, a similar number to the previous quarter which saw 24.

The regulator appears to be using attestations more frequently in recent months with the past two quarters dominating the 63 total attestations issued over the past year.