FCA pledges overhaul of attestation proceedures

Carmen Reichman
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has pledged it will overhaul the way it issues attestations to firms - which put the onus on senior management to fix problems - by placing greater importance on clarity and transparency.

Attestations are part of the FCA's supervisory toolkit. They ask senior managers for a commitment that specific action will be taken at the firm, making them personally accountable for putting things right. In a letter to the chairman of the FCA practitioner panel Graham Beale, dated 22 August, the regulator said it will ensure all attestations are signed off at head of department level, reviewed centrally and the data published on a quarterly basis. Beale raised the practitioner panel's concerns about the increasing use of attestations and the criteria for their use to FCA director o...

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