CREDS 2.1 Application and purpose

The purpose of this chapter is to provide rules and guidance relating to senior management arrangements, systems and controls that are specific to credit unions with a permission to accept deposits.

This chapter is also intended to remind credit unions that the Senior Management Arrangements, Systems and Controls sourcebook (SYSC) also contains a number of high level rules relating to senior management arrangements, systems and controls designed to have general application to all firms, including credit unions. SYSC 1 and SYSC 4 to SYSC 10 apply to all credit unions in respect of the carrying on of their regulated activities and unregulated activities in a prudential context. SYSC 18 applies to all credit unions without restriction. This chapter does not seek to repeat the requirements of SYSC that are relevant to firms more generally.

The purposes of SYSC, which applies to all credit unions, are:

1. (1)

   to encourage directors and senior managers to take appropriate practical responsibility for the arrangements that all firms must put in place on matters likely to be of interest to the FSA because they impinge on the FSA's function under the Act;

2. (2)

   to reinforce Principle 3, under which all firms must take reasonable care to organise and control their affairs responsibly and effectively with adequate risk management systems;

3. (3)

   to encourage all firms to vest responsibility for effective and responsible organisation in specific directors and senior managers.