How Much Does FCA Authorisation Cost?
Fees checked against the FCA’s published fee schedule on .
The FCA charges an application fee of between £280 and £225,170, set by which of the ten pricing categories your permissions fall into. Several common firm types sit near the bottom of that range: a limited-permission consumer credit firm pays £560, a typical adviser or broker pays £2,820, a small payment institution pays £1,130, and an authorised payment institution pays £2,820–£5,640.
The application fee is the smallest part of the bill. Our estimate of a realistic first-year budget runs from £8,000 for a limited-permission consumer credit firm to £45,000 for a payments institution, with most advisers and brokers landing between £15,000 and £30,000 — once you include the documentation work, regulatory business plan, financial model, systems and the people the FCA expects to see in post before it will approve you.
FCA application fees by pricing category
The FCA groups permissions into ten numbered pricing categories. Your category is set by the permissions you apply for, not by your size or revenue.
| Category | Application fee |
|---|---|
| 1 | £280 |
| 2 | £560 |
| 3 | £1,130 |
| 4 | £2,820 |
| 5 | £5,640 |
| 6 | £11,260 |
| 7 | £28,150 |
| 8 | £56,300 |
| 9 | £112,590 |
| 10 | £225,170 |
The fee is not refunded if you withdraw or the application is refused. The money is gone. The FCA says firms commonly withdraw because they were not ready, willing and organised when they applied, needed time to fix gaps, or expected a refusal.
A variation of permission is charged too. Adding permissions later attracts a fee: category 2 if you stay in the same fee-block, or half the new-firm fee for any new fee-block. Applying for permissions you do not yet need is expensive; applying for too few and varying later is also expensive. Getting the scope right first time is where most of the money is saved.
Which FCA fee category is your firm in?
A price list is no use until you know which line you are on. The common permission sets map as follows.
| Firm type | Category | Application fee |
|---|---|---|
| Limited permission consumer credit | 2 | £560 |
| Annex 1 firms (money laundering registration) | 2 | £560 |
| Small payment institutions (SPI) | 3 | £1,130 |
| Most advisers, brokers and intermediaries | 4 | £2,820 |
| Authorised payment institutions (API) | 4 – 5 | £2,820 – £5,640 |
| Cryptoasset registration | 6 | £11,260 |
| Banks and insurers (dual-regulated, FCA + PRA) | 7 | £28,150 |
Estimate your exact fee with our free FCA fee calculator →
What the application fee does not cover
This is the gap that wrecks authorisation budgets. The FCA’s fee buys the assessment. It does not buy any of the work required to pass it.
- Documentation
- A regulatory business plan, financial projections with stress scenarios, a compliance monitoring programme, and the policy suite appropriate to your permissions. The FCA reads these properly and returns them when they are thin.
- Financial resources
- You must hold your prudential requirement — for many payments firms initial capital of €20,000–€125,000 equivalent, for investment firms a permanent minimum requirement — and evidence it. Less a cost than capital you cannot deploy elsewhere.
- People
- Senior Managers under SM&CR must be in post, with genuine competence for each function. The FCA looks at whether key people have the skills and the capacity for their roles.
- Systems
- Client money segregation, safeguarding arrangements, transaction monitoring, financial crime controls and complaints handling. The FCA expects you to show your technology and systems are ready to carry out the activities you apply for.
- Advisory support
- Where firms use a consultancy, our estimate is £8,000–£30,000 depending on complexity and how much of the drafting is done in-house.
Time is a cost, and it is the one firms under-model
The FCA has six months to determine a complete application under the Financial Services and Markets Act, and three months for a complete payment services or e-money application. For an incomplete application of either kind the limit is twelve months. The six- and three-month periods run from the date the FCA receives the completed application. The twelve-month limit runs from the date it receives the application. The FCA says it usually has questions, so allow time for them.
The cost is not the waiting. It is that most firms are carrying premises, salaries and systems through that period without being able to trade. A six-month determination on a team of four is a materially larger number than any FCA fee. Firms that submit early to “get in the queue” almost always spend more, because an incomplete application invites a longer assessment and more rounds of questions.
The ongoing cost of FCA registration
Authorisation is not a one-off payment. From your first full fee year you will pay:
- The FCA periodic fee — a minimum fee plus a variable element scaled to your tariff data (income, assets, or approved persons, depending on fee-block)
- The FOS levy — if you deal with eligible complainants
- The FSCS levy — the most volatile line in the budget; it moves with industry-wide claims and has surprised firms badly in the past
Three worked authorisation budgets
| Cost line | Consumer credit | Adviser / broker | Payments (API) |
|---|---|---|---|
| FCA application fee | £560 | £2,820 | £5,640 |
| Documentation and advisory | £6,000 – £12,000 | £10,000 – £20,000 | £15,000 – £30,000 |
| Capital held | — | Permanent minimum requirement | €20,000–€125,000 equivalent, by service |
| Typical end-to-end, including FCA questions (MEMA estimate) | 3 – 6 months | 6 – 9 months | 6 – 12 months |
| Realistic first-year cost | £8,000 – £15,000 | £15,000 – £30,000 | £25,000 – £45,000 plus capital |
Ranges, not quotes. The variable is almost always how much of the drafting your team can carry.
How to structure your own budget
Use an assumptions sheet, not a single consultancy quote. Keep three things apart: cash you will spend, capital or liquidity you must commit, and the recurring annual run-rate. Mixing them hides the real funding need.
| Line | One-off or reserved | Ongoing after approval |
|---|---|---|
| FCA application fee | One-off, set by permission category | None. A separate periodic fee follows |
| Application preparation | Project fee or internal time | Change and advisory support as needed |
| Systems and integration | Set-up, testing and supplier onboarding | Licences, monitoring and maintenance |
| Capital and liquidity | Amount committed to the legal entity | Requirement and headroom kept up |
| People and assurance | Recruitment, training, readiness testing | Compliance, risk, MLRO, audit, annual reviews |
The application fee is paid once, through Connect, when you apply. After authorisation you pay a periodic fee each year. In your first year you pay only a proportion of it, based on the months left in the fee year.
An example of what goes missing: a founder budgets £2,820 for the FCA fee and £15,000 for drafting, and nothing else. No one has priced the compliance officer, the platform and contract dependencies, launch losses, insurance or monitoring. The sum is an illustration, not an FCA estimate.
Where firms overspend, and where they should not cut
A shorter policy is not a worse one. An unworkable control is. Put the money where the FCA looks.
- A big policy library before the model is settled
- The FCA says it will not review draft documents, and it criticises policies that are not tailored to the firm or do not fit together. Settle your permissions and customer journey first. Then write the policies that describe how you will actually work.
- Overlapping consultants
- One person should own each piece of evidence, and one person should coordinate. Two advisers working on the same document is paying twice for the same hour.
- An outsourced officer standing in for the board
- The FCA expects to deal with the firm directly, not its adviser, and it has seen firms that cannot show they understand their own obligations without the consultant. An external MLRO or compliance officer helps. It does not replace a board that understands the business.
- The cheapest payments route
- A small payment institution pays a lower application fee than an authorised one. If your growth plan needs the authorised route soon after launch, the cheaper start may only delay the larger application. Compare both before you commit.
Do not cut accurate forecasts, credible people in post, controls that work and contracts that match your model. The FCA’s own good-practice review covers people, policies and financial resources, and it publishes examples of good practice and areas for improvement from real applications. Our documents checklist shows what to have ready, and the SPI versus API guide covers the payments route choice.
A finance checklist before you submit
Board approval should cover the first year after approval, not just the filing date. The FCA sets out the financial information it expects with every application.
- The fee category and application type are checked against the FCA fee page, not a headline figure.
- We have a one-off cost schedule and a 12-month recurring cost schedule.
- Forecasts cover income statement, balance sheet and cash flow. The FCA treats three years in Excel as best practice, and accepts monthly or yearly figures.
- The balance sheet balances, and opening and closing figures match across years. The FCA warns about both.
- If the company is already trading, historical accounts are included. The FCA treats three years as best practice.
- Notes and key assumptions explain the figures, and the numbers cover the legal entity that is applying, not part of it.
- Funding is evidenced, with commitments and contingency plans. A small firm can use bank statements.
- Capital and liquidity are shown separately from spending, and the forecast keeps headroom after start-up losses and a downside case.
- Supplier costs, insurance and compliance staffing are all in the numbers.
- The board has agreed what happens to funding if launch slips.
Get a fixed view of your number
We are an ex-FCA authorisations team. In a 30-minute scoping call we will tell you which pricing category you fall into, what the FCA will ask for in your case, and what the realistic total is — before you spend anything.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does it cost to get FCA regulated?
- The FCA application fee is between £280 and £225,170 depending on your pricing category. Most firms pay £560 to £5,640. Including documentation, advisory support and the resources the FCA expects to see in place, a realistic total first-year cost runs from about £8,000 for a limited-permission consumer credit firm to £45,000 for a payments institution, with most advisers and brokers landing between £15,000 and £30,000.
- Which FCA fee category am I in?
- Your category is set by the permissions you apply for, not by your size or revenue. Limited permission consumer credit firms and Annex 1 money laundering registrations fall in category 2 (£560). Most advisers, brokers and intermediaries fall in category 4 (£2,820). Small payment institutions, small e-money institutions and registered account information service providers fall in category 3 (£1,130). Authorised payment institutions fall in category 4 or 5 (£2,820–£5,640), and authorised e-money institutions in category 5. Cryptoasset registration is category 6 (£11,260), and dual-regulated banks and insurers are category 7 (£28,150).
- Is the FCA application fee refundable?
- No. The fee is not refunded if your application is refused, and it is not refunded if you withdraw after submitting. The one exception the FCA describes is a submission it rejects without assessing because the minimum information is missing. In that case it explains why and refunds the fee.
- How much does an FCA licence cost per year?
- After authorisation you pay an annual periodic fee (a minimum fee plus a variable element based on your tariff data), plus the FOS and FSCS levies where applicable. The FSCS levy varies considerably year to year, so check the current figures.
- Do I pay again to add permissions?
- Usually. If the new permissions keep you in the same fee-block, the fee is category 2 (£560). If they move you into a new fee-block, it is 50% of the new-firm application fee for that block (the higher one if you move into several). There is no fee if you are only keeping or reducing your permissions.
- Can I use my regulatory capital to pay for the application?
- Treat them as separate. The FCA looks at whether you have enough assets to cover your debts and liabilities, and at your profitability, capital and liquidity. Money counted towards a capital requirement is not free to spend, so forecast your costs and your required resources in different columns.
- How much does FCA authorisation cost with a consultant?
- Our estimate for consultancy support is £8,000 to £30,000 depending on the permissions sought and how much drafting your own team does. This is separate from the FCA's fee.
- How long does FCA authorisation take?
- For a complete application under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 the FCA has six months. For a complete payment services or e-money application it has three months. For an incomplete application of either kind the limit is twelve months. The FCA also says you are unlikely to be authorised straight away, because it usually has questions. The six- and three-month periods start when the FCA receives the complete application, and the twelve-month limit when it receives the application, so none of them includes your own preparation time.
Related
Fees are set by the FCA and change. Figures on this page were checked against the FCA’s published schedule on 12 August 2026; confirm current figures before budgeting.