BSB Consultation Paper – Certification Regime: Fitness and Propriety
The BSB is today (8 June 2016) launching a Consultation Paper based on the outputs of our members’ Working Group on the Certification Regime. The Consultation Paper invites your responses to a set of proposed voluntary guidelines to help with the assessment of Fitness and Propriety (F&P). Subject to the feedback provided, the BSB’s aim is to create a final set of voluntary guidelines to aid BSB member firms and the industry more widely.
The purpose of this Consultation:
To help member firms implement the Certification Regime as effectively and consistently as possible, the BSB established a members’ Working Group in January 2016 to consider whether there were aspects of the regime where voluntary, good practice guidelines could be useful.
This Consultation Paper sets out the results of the Working Group’s deliberations to date. It proposes voluntary guidelines that firms may find helpful in implementing and conducting their F&P assessments (including the types of information firms may wish to take into account as part of these assessments) and suggests how the outcomes of Certification decisions might be recorded.
These guidelines are not intended to be binding on BSB members; different firms are at different stages and may decide to take different approaches to implementing the new regime. We hope, however, that members will find them relevant and practical and that they will use or make reference to them in developing their own processes, policies and procedures for Certification.
Download the Consultation paper and related documentation:
Consultation paper (379KB)
Definitions and sources of information (352KB)
Assessment principles (493KB)
Assessment record template (391KB)
Some aspects of the voluntary guidelines may, of course, be affected by as yet unpublished rules on regulatory references. Given, however, the importance of timely and effective implementation of a regime that is already in operation, we considered it most useful to circulate this Consultation Paper now and update the guidelines as needed.
How to respond:
Responses to the Consultation should be sent to certification@bankingstandardsboard.org.uk by close on 7 September 2016.
All responses will be reviewed and considered by the BSB and shared with the BSB’s Certification Regime Working Group to inform further development of the voluntary guidelines. Should you wish your response to be anonymised prior to circulation please highlight this in your response. In the meantime, the Working Group will continue to meet and will explore, among other issues, the scope for communicating the outcome of certification decisions to individuals in a way that is passportable across the industry.
If you have any questions in the meantime – or if you are a BSB member and would like to join the Certification Regime Working Group – please do not hesitate to get in touch.
