On 29 March 2019, the FCA published Policy Statement 19/9: Applying the Senior Managers and Certification Regime to Claims Management Companies (PS19/9).

In PS19/9 the FCA sets out how it will apply the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR) to claims management companies (CMCs) and their staff. The new regime will start to apply to CMCs from 9 December 2019.

The FCA previously consulted on how it will apply the SM&CR to CMCs in Consultation Paper 18/26. In PS19/9 the FCA reports that it is implementing its consultation proposals, with 2 minor changes in light of the feedback received. Specifically:

• the FCA is not implementing the rule that does not permit one individual to hold both the SMF27 – Limited Scope Function and the SMF 16 – Compliance Oversight Function as it agrees that there may be some cases where it could be appropriate for one individual to hold both. This is further discussed in chapter 3; and
• the FCA has amended its rules so that CMCs that are already regulated, because they have other regulatory permissions, will not need to seek new Approved Persons authorisations when claims management becomes regulated. This is discussed further in chapter 7.