On 24 March 2021, the PRA published Policy Statement 4/21’Depositor protection: Identity verification’ (PS4/21).

In PS4/21 the PRA provides feedback to Consultation Paper 3/21 ‘Depositor protection: Identity verification’ (CP3/21). In CP3/21 the PRA proposed to:

• Amend existing depositor protection rules to allow identity verification to be carried out retrospectively, if a responsible person had not already done so before the compensation date, for the purposes of determining the eligibility of depositors and ultimate beneficiaries for Financial Services Compensation Scheme protection.
• Introduce a new expectation in Supervisory Statement 18/15 (SS18/15) that insolvency practitioners (IPs) should carry out identity verification in the event that a responsible person had not done so by the compensation date.

In PS4/21 the PRA sets out its final policy which comprise of amendments to the Depositor Protection Part of the PRA Rulebook and updates to SS18/15. The PRA reports that in light of the feedback to CP3/21 it has decided to amend the language in paragraph 2.10 of SS18/15. The changes are intended to provide clarity that responsibility for carrying out identity verification is flexible, while setting out that IPs would generally be best placed to facilitate identity verification post-compensation date. The remainder of the changes are as consulted on. The changes take effect on 29 March 2021.