On 22 January 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) hosted its in-person “Gateway to Growth” event in London, underlining its commitment to strengthening the competitiveness of the UK financial services sector.
The session forms part of the regulator’s five-year strategy to support innovation and sustainable expansion, while maintaining robust oversight, claims ACA Group.
Among those attending by invitation was ACA, which gained direct insight into how the FCA is rethinking its authorisation process for firms seeking to enter or scale within the UK market.
The regulator is repositioning authorisation within the broader national growth agenda. While scrutiny remains rigorous, the FCA is aiming to make the process more transparent, efficient and predictable.
For buy-side firms and other applicants, this signals clearer expectations and a more structured dialogue with the regulator. Authorisation is no longer being framed as a purely defensive gatekeeping exercise, but as a mechanism to enable credible firms to establish themselves with confidence.
Senior figures at the event reinforced this message. The panel included FCA CEO Nikhil Rathi, executive director of authorisations and joint interim COO Sheree Howard, directors of authorisations Laura Dawes and Dominic Cashman, and Office for Investment Financial Services CEO Rahul Ahluwalia.
Their collective message was that while standards will not be diluted, processes do not need to be slow or opaque. Authorisation should be exacting, but it should also be navigable.
A central theme was the parallel pursuit of consumer protection and market growth. The FCA recently launched its multichannel campaign, “Check if it’s real, before you seal the deal,” alongside a new Firm Checker tool to help consumers verify whether a firm is genuine and authorised.
The initiative is designed to position the FCA as the first reference point for validation, strengthening trust in the regulatory perimeter. For firms launching in the UK, the signal is clear: transparency and credibility must be embedded from day one.
Encouragingly for applicants, timelines are improving. In Q2 2025, 50% of authorisation decisions were reached within four months. Between April and December 2025, 273 applications progressed to a “minded to approve” stage, meaning the FCA was satisfied in principle, subject to final conditions.
During that period, 99.5% of applications met statutory timelines. Current targets stand at six months for complete applications and twelve months for incomplete submissions, with ambitions to reduce these further to four and ten months respectively. Increasingly, delays are linked less to regulator capacity and more to application quality and operational readiness.
Addressing long-standing perceptions, Sheree Howard likened the regulator’s role to airport security: essential, but designed to move people through efficiently while managing risk. The FCA is keen to dispel the notion that it is unapproachable. Applications from both UK and overseas firms are welcomed, though openness should not be confused with leniency. Technology and AI are being deployed to improve efficiency in reviewing documentation and handling queries, yet human judgement remains central to decision-making.
The FCA is also actively promoting its Pre-Application Support Service (PASS), which enables firms to engage before formally applying. Through PASS, businesses can test how their models fit within the regulatory framework, including in change-in-control scenarios. Early engagement can significantly reduce misalignment and avoid costly delays later.
Looking ahead, provisional licences are being explored by both HM Treasury and the FCA, subject to primary legislation. These time-limited permissions would allow eligible firms to operate under close supervision while progressing towards full authorisation. However, they will not be available to dual-regulated firms overseen jointly by the FCA and the Prudential Regulation Authority. For growth-focused businesses, provisional licences could lower barriers to entry without weakening regulatory standards.
Beyond authorisation mechanics, the FCA acknowledged structural obstacles faced by new entrants, including challenges in opening bank accounts. Collaborative work with other agencies aims to ease these friction points and support relocation pathways.
For firms preparing to apply, the message is pragmatic: engage early, submit complete and well-evidenced documentation, ensure senior management can clearly articulate the business model and risk framework, and retain ownership of the application even when advisors are involved. Faster processes mean preparation is critical.
The Gateway to Growth event made clear that authorisation is becoming more streamlined, but no less exacting. For firms prepared to meet the FCA with clarity and operational substance, the pathway into the UK market is increasingly defined by opportunity rather than obstruction.
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