SIFA 18.3 Application Fees

Any organisation applying to us for authorisation or recognition has to pay an application fee. We also charge an application fee where firms currently authorised seek significant variations to their permission. Application fees must be paid whether or not the application is successful and are not refundable. This reflects the fact that we commit resources to applications when they are received; so all applications have a cost to us regardless of their outcome.

Application fees are flat rate fees that vary according to the category of business for which authorisation is being sought. For applicants that wish to become authorised persons there are three main types of application fees:

• straightforward;
• moderately complex; and
• complex.

The complexity of an application is determined by the fee-block(s) to which an applicant would be allocated if the application were successful.

Typically, applications from small firms such as independent financial advisers would be classed as straightforward. This reflects the fact that the typical permission profile of such firms would allocate them to either fee-block A.12 or A.13. Applications for the activities covered by these fee-blocks are deemed to be straightforward.

An authorised firm may seek to significantly vary its scope of permission, and that extension, if granted, may cause them to fall into new fee-blocks they were not allocated to before the variation. In these cases, a permission variation fee is payable. These fees are charged at 50% of the equivalent application fee for the new fee-block(s).

Application fee rates for each fee-block are located in the FSA Handbook, in the Authorisation Manual (AUTH 4 Annex 1 RR).