In 2016, the PRA and FCA introduced a new individual accountability regime for banks – the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR). It was later adopted for insurers and was extended to all other regulated firms in December 2019.
The regime is designed to make sure there’s clear accountability at the senior levels of an organisation. The aim is to make individuals more accountable for their responsibilities, conduct and competence.
We’re not obliged to do so, but we’ve chosen to create our own version of the regime. Individual accountability is one of our core values so implementing and publishing an SMCR is in line with that and supports our strategic aim to emulate best practice within financial services.
What we’ve included in our SMCR
We’ve chosen to implement all aspects of the accountability regime that are relevant to us rather than directly replicate the FCA or PRA rules.
This includes producing a map of responsibilities to show where responsibilities lie at a senior level. Alongside this are statements of responsibilities that set out each senior manager’s individual responsibilities and our processes for certifying key people.