Rising to the challenge of the Certification Regime

The certification element of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime has tended to be sidelined by firms due to other regulatory pressures. But Julie Pardy believes that the ‘heavy lifting’ in the SMCR sits predominantly with the ongoing obligation to assess and evidence competence, fitness and propriety. She discusses practical aspects of implementation…

Julie Pardy is director of regulation and market engagement at Worksmart, a Milton Keynes-based provider of software solutions for individual accountability, quality assurance, as well as complaints management. Contact her on julie.pardy@worksmart.co.uk.

For those firms yet to be subject to the new Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR), implementing a Certification Regime may be the least of your current concerns bearing in mind the competing regulatory priorities of MIFID II, GDPR and the IDD. However, as per the good old saying ‘Preparation is the key to success’, now is the time for firms to start considering the implications of this new piece of legislation and the impact it will have on people and processes.