Financial Resilience Survey: what’s changing and what does it mean for you?

The Financial Resilience Survey (formerly ‘Covid-19 Impact Survey’) has been around since June 2020 and is one way the FCA can collect basic financial data from solo-regulated firms. FCA use the data collected to understand the likelihood of firm failure as well as the risks across the financial services sector, helping to meet their objectives to protect consumers and ensure market integrity.

In October 2022, the FCA released CP22/19 consulting on the creation of a baseline financial resilience regulatory return. The reason given for this is that the FCA have realised the significant administrative and financial burden their ad hoc surveys can cause for firms and are looking to standardise the data collection using a regulatory return in RegData.

The new return will be called FIN073 and will be due from January 2024. Firms will be able to see the return in their schedules in RegData will receive reminders when it is due. The return will be quarterly and aligned with a firm’s Accounting Reference Date (ARD), so will be due at the same time as other returns the firm completes eg. FSA030 (or equivalent).

The new FIN073 return will consist of 5 questions, which is a reduction on the current 9 questions in the surveys and a supplementary note has been designed to assist in the completion of the return.

What should firms do next?

Firms who received a survey for completion in June will need to be complete and submit in the same way as previous surveys. However, from January 2024, firms will see a new FIN073 return appear in their RegData schedules on a quarterly basis.

Whilst it has not been stated explicitly, as the return will be in the RegData system, it is likely to be subject to administration fees for late submission.

If you require any help with the completion of this return (or any others), please get in contact. Our team includes former FCA employees with significant knowledge and experience of FCA returns and the RegData system.

For further information, you can read PS23/3 - Creation of a baseline financial resilience regulatory return: Feedback to CP22/19 and final rules or visit the Financial Resilience Survey page on the FCA website.