The role of attestations
From time-to-time, under all elements of the SM&CR, it will be necessary to gather information from staff members. Some examples of particular circumstances in which this will be necessary are detailed below.
Senior Managers Regime attestations
When applying for the approval of an individual as a Senior Manager, firms must complete “Form A”. Part of Form A requires the individual to attest to [what?]. As such, it is important that the firm knows of any issues that might exist before submitting the application.
Senior Managers should be required to provide comfort regarding the ‘reasonable steps’ they have taken to ensure that a breach of regulation does not occur in relation to the part of the business for which they have responsibility. This is necessary so as to discharge the legal obligations to which they are subject under SYSC.
Senior Managers should be required to provide confirmation regarding the accuracy and completeness of information contained within handover notes so as to satisfy the requirements of SYSC 25.9.
Certification Regime attestations
At least annually, each firm must certify all of its Certification Staff as being fit and proper to perform their role. This will require the firm to seek confirmation from each member of staff regarding certain factual situations, for example:
The absence of a criminal conviction;
Not being dismissed from positions of influence;
The absence of adverse County Court judgments;
Not having been made bankrupt.
Conduct Rules attestations.
In order to satisfy the requirements of COCON 2.3.1G, staff members should be asked to confirm that they have been notified of the Conduct Rules that apply to them and their role and that they understand the Conduct Rules that apply to them and their role.
Corterum can help you manage the attestation process, as well as enabling you to create new attestations specifically for how you want to manage your compliance within your firm.
Attestations already within Corterum
If you navigate to Administration > Attestation Forms, you will see that Corterum is pre-populated with a number of attestations sets. In summary, these are:
“Conduct Rules attestations”. This enables users to evidence compliance with the requirements of COCON 2.3.
“F&P Attestations (Long Form A and Form D)”. Both Form A and Form D share common attestations which are required of Senior Manager. In large part, these attestations relate to the fitness and propriety of the Senior Manager. This attestation set enables users to gather this information in advance.
General FCA form attestations. A number of FCA form require a Senior Manager to attest to certain matters. For example, under Forms A, B, D, E, I and J Senior Managers are required to confirm that they understand that it is a criminal offence to give the FCA information that is materially false. This attestation set enables users to capture this baseline set of information from Senior Managers.
Senior manager ‘reasonable steps’ attestations. This set of attestations provides an example set of questions which firms can ask of their Senior Managers in order to gauge the arrangements the Senior Manager has put in place with a view to determining whether the Senior Manager has taken the ‘reasonable steps’ required under Section 66A(5) of FSMA 2000.
Senior Manager Handover Note Attestations. This is an example of a set of attestation that can be periodically required of Senior Managers in order to ensure that handover notes are created and kept up-to-date.
If you would like the Corterum Team to create new sets of attestations, please just let us know at [email protected]. We’d love to help!