SIFA 13.1 General requirement

A firm must take reasonable care to make and keep adequate records of matters and dealings (including accounting records) which are the subject of requirements and standards under the regulatory system. The records should be capable of being reproduced on paper in English. ( SYSC 3.2.20 R).

A firm should have appropriate systems and controls to fulfil its regulatory and statutory obligations on the adequacy, access, periods of retention and security of records. The general principle is that records should be kept for as long as is relevant for the purposes for which they are made. You can store records on computer disc so long as they are capable of being reproduced on paper.

You will find detailed record keeping requirements throughout the Handbook. Schedule 1 to each of the sourcebooks is an overall summary of these requirements.