FCA authorisation: what documents will you actually need?

The FCA's how to apply page is the starting point. It says your application is submitted on Connect, and that the FCA will reject a submission without assessing it if you do not provide the minimum information it asks for. Your sector page tells you which forms and supporting material apply to you.

The FCA also tells applicants what it does not want. Documents should be final versions, thoroughly reviewed and appropriately signed off. It will not review drafts. Policies should not be generic templates: they need to be tailored to the business model.

Saying that "robust controls are in place" is not evidence. Name the owner, how often the control runs, the record it leaves, where exceptions go and who they are reported to. The FCA's published good practice for applicants (September 2025) lists what it keeps seeing go wrong.

The Consumer Duty should run through all of this. The FCA's sample business plan says the Duty should feature throughout the plan, and good practice is to weave it into policies, procedures and controls, rather than repeating the Duty in a separate document. A firm outside the Duty must say why, and show how it will meet Principles 6 and 7.

Every applicant must have financial forecasts in place before the FCA can assess the application. A firm that is already incorporated and trading must also provide historical accounts. All information must be in English, and customised to your business, your legal structure and your sector.

A forecast that shows a profit while the business plan promises to hire six people before launch is a problem. The payroll has to appear at the right point. The FCA names the errors it sees: balance sheets that do not balance, and opening and closing accounts that do not match across years.

The FCA publishes a separate page for each type of firm. Each lists the forms, the supporting material and the specific things it expects to see. They differ more than most founders expect. The views below pick out what each page says is particular to that sector.

Many applicants must also register individuals in senior roles and controllers. Do not assume an outsourced compliance resource removes the need for accountable people in the firm. For consumer investment firms, the FCA says past industry experience alone will not satisfy it that someone is competent to be Head of Compliance or MLRO.

The FCA's own words: the policies should be capable of being read together, so that the reader can join the dots and understand how the firm will apply them day to day. Here is a worked example of what happens when they do not.

Keep one index showing document title, regulatory purpose, owner, current version, approval date, the application question it answers and its status. Read the guidance for your sector and the relevant Connect forms before you finalise. Where something genuinely does not apply, give a short explanation.

If a third-party contract is conditional on authorisation, say which parts are agreed, which are contingent, and how you will show the service is ready on the day you are authorised.