On 1 June 2021, the FCA updated its webpage concerning how to apply for authorisation.

The FCA has added a new section titled “Change of legal status” which provides:

“If you change your firm’s legal status you will need to submit a new firm authorisation application. You will also have to sign a Deed Poll declaration. This requires your firm to deal with any complaints from existing customers in the same way that it would customers of your new legal entity.

We have this requirement to prevent firms leaving behind their obligations to their customers by changing their legal entity. Before your application is approved, we will ask you to cancel the previous entity’s permissions.

The new application will be assessed in the same way as any other new authorisation application, so you should make sure you have read our ‘How to apply for authorisations’ pages, and have everything ready for assessment when you submit your application.”