FCA set to cut authorisation staff

09:00 Wednesday 6th April 2016

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is planning to cut the number of staff in its authorisation team.

A response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request revealed that the regulator has estimated it will reduce the number of full-time employees (FTE) in the team from 580 in 2015 to 535 this year, saving a total of £4.1m.

The team had previously increased from 283 in 2013 to 506 in 2014, before jumping to 580.

The FCA said: “The increase in FTE and cost of authorisations over this period is due to a temporary increase in the volume of applications that needed to be processed for consumer credit firms holding interim permissions.”

In April 2014, the FCA took over the regulation of around 50,000 firms from the Office of Fair Trading.

Commenting on the FOI, Fiona Hoyle, Head of Consumer and Mortgage Finance at the Finance & Leasing Association, told Loan Talk: “Many consumer credit firms are still going through the FCA’s authorisation process and, therefore, it is essential that the authorisation teams remain well-resourced if protracted delays are to be avoided.”

Staff costs at the regulator’s authorisation team were £15.6m in 2013 and £26.3m in 2014.

This is expected to have peaked at £32.4m in 2015, with the FCA forecasting this figure to fall to £28.3m this year.

However, the FCA has stated there will be six more customer contact centres than the year before.

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FCA set to cut authorisation staff

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