EG 2.11 2Senior management responsibility

The FCA is committed to ensuring that senior managers of firms fulfil their responsibilities. The FCA expects senior management to take responsibility for ensuring firms identify risks, develop appropriate systems and controls to manage those risks, and ensure that the systems and controls are effective in practice. The FCA will not pursue senior managers where there is no personal culpability. However, where senior managers are themselves responsible for misconduct, the FCA will, where appropriate, bring cases against individuals as well as firms. The FCA believes that deterrence will most effectively be achieved by bringing home to such individuals the consequences of their actions. The FCA's policy on disciplinary action against senior management and against other approved persons under section 66 of the Act is set out in DEPP 6.2.4 G to DEPP 6.2.9 G. The FCA's policy on prohibition and withdrawal of approval is set out in chapter 9 of this guide.

2The FCA recognises that cases against individuals are very different in their nature from cases against corporate entities and the FCA is mindful that an individual will generally face greater risks from enforcement action, in terms of financial implications, reputation and livelihood than would a corporate entity. As such, cases against individuals tend to be more strongly contested, and at many practical levels are harder to prove. They also take longer to resolve. However, taking action against individuals sends an important message about the FCA's statutory objectives and priorities and the FCA considers that such cases have important deterrent values. The FCA is therefore committed to pursuing appropriate cases robustly, and will dedicate sufficient resources to them to achieve effective outcomes.