Overview
A firm authorised under Part 4A of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA) has a single Part 4A permission granted by us or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This permission includes a description of the activities the firm may carry on (including any limitations), the specified investments involved, and, if relevant, any requirements. A firm is prohibited from carrying on a regulated activity in the UK (or purporting to do so) otherwise than in accordance with its permission.
If a firm decides to do any of the following, it should review its Part 4A permission and decide whether it needs to vary it:
- start a new line of business
- undertake a new regulated activity
- extend a business line into a new product or to a new class of people.
All regulated activities are defined in the Regulated Activities Order.
Part 4A of FSMA sets out the requirements of variations of permissions and the Threshold Conditions which must be met at authorisation of the activity and on an ongoing basis. Our approach to banking supervision and approach to insurance supervision set out our policy on the matters that we will consider in respect of the Threshold Conditions when we decide to grant permissions.