On June 1, the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) published a short guide to its plans for dividing the FSA Handbook into handbooks for the its two successor regulators – the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), when the PRA and the FCA acquire their legal powers, and the FSA is abolished in its current form. This will occur on a date yet to be fixed, likely to be in the first half of 2013.

The FSA Handbook will be split between the FCA and the PRA to form two new handbooks, one for the PRA and one for the FCA. Most provisions in the FSA Handbook will be incorporated into the PRA’s Handbook, the FCA’s Handbook, or both, in line with each new regulator’s responsibilities and objectives.

The guide states that in some areas substantive changes will be made to reflect the existence of the two new regulators and their respective roles and powers. This is likely to include such aspects as the future processes for permissions, passporting, controlled functions, threshold conditions and enforcement powers. Any substantive changes will be subject to external consultation.

Meanwhile, changes to the FSA Handbook as a result of EU legislation and ongoing FSA policy initiatives will continue to be made. After acquiring their powers, the FCA and the PRA will amend their rules in accordance with the processes laid down in the relevant statutory materials, including cooperation between them and external consultation.

Draft FCA and PRA Handbooks will be published in early 2013. For more information, click here.