SIFA 15.2 Cancellation of permission

If your firm wishes to cease carrying on all regulated activities for which your firm holds permission, you may apply for a cancellation of Part IV permission. You may do this while still carrying out business, as long as your firm has formal plans to cease all regulated activities in the short term (within six months from the date of application for the cancellation of permission).

As with variation of permission (VOPs), we may cancel a firm's permission under our own-initiative powers.

There is no fee for applying to cancel. If a firm wants to cancel some, but not all, of its regulated activities, it should apply to vary its permission instead.

Before applying for its Part IV permission to be cancelled a firm must either:

• have ceased carrying on regulated activities; or
• plan to cease doing so within six months of the application being made.

The firm should have also:

• told its clients and its approved persons of its intention to cancel its permission;
• paid all its outstanding fees;
• filed any regulatory returns that are due;
• resolved any complaints against it; and
• made suitable arrangements to deal with any subsequent complaints and liabilities that might arise.

If you wish to cancel your firm's permission, you must complete and submit the Cancellation of Part IV Permission application form. This may be done in several ways:

• you may access the Online form and send it to us using Firms Online;
• you may access the form from our website under 'FSA Library - Forms'; or
• you may obtain a form from the Firm Contact Centre.

A cancellation application may also be delivered to us by any of the methods explained in SUP 15.7.4 R to SUP 15.7.6 G. If you have any questions, you should contact the Cancellation Team at the FSA. When we receive the application, we will send your firm an acknowledgement that will explain the cancellation process and detail the information required. We may ask for further information - depending on the type of firm, the type of clients and the manner of disposal of the business.

The deletion of controlled functions is an automatic part of the process. A firm applying for cancellation does not also need to notify the withdrawal of persons who perform controlled functions using Form C.

As with VOPs, until the cancellation has been approved, your firm must inform us immediately if it becomes aware of any significant changes in the information you have submitted.

To contact the Cancellation Team:

• email cancellation.team@fsa.gov.uk;
• telephone on 020 7066 1102;
• fax on 020 7066 9798; or
• write to: Cancellation Team, The Financial Services Authority, 25 The North Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HS