We will be covering the topics of Central Bank of Ireland Authorisations and its role as Gatekeeper to the regulated Irish financial services community at the Fintech Ireland Summit taking place on Thursday 28 November 2024. Read more here.
Central Bank of Ireland has today, Wednesday 26 June 2024, issued the first edition of the Authorisations and Gatekeeping Report.
We posted about this on Linkedin here. You can watch the movie of extracts from the Report here.
In this blog you can download a copy of the Authorisations and Gatekeeping Report (in the next link below and at end of blog). We have copied and pasted the forward by Sharon Donnery, Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Ireland immediately below.
We posted about this on Linkedin here. You can watch the movie of extracts from the Report here.
In this blog you can download a copy of the Authorisations and Gatekeeping Report (in the next link below and at end of blog). We have copied and pasted the forward by Sharon Donnery, Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Ireland immediately below.
Sharon Donnery, Deputy Governor, Financial Regulation, Central Bank of Ireland
Foreword
Sharon Donnery, Deputy Governor, Financial Regulation
I am very pleased to introduce the Central Bank of Ireland’s (“The Central Bank”) inaugural “Authorisations and Gatekeeping Report". The Central Bank regulates and supervises over 12,000 firms providing products and services in Ireland, the European Union (“EU”) and around the world. Our mission is to serve the public interest by maintaining monetary and financial stability while ensuring that the financial system operates in the best interests of consumers and the wider economy.
A strong regulatory and supervisory framework, ensuring we have a stable, resilient and trustworthy financial sector, enables us to deliver on our mission for the public. Our gatekeeping role is an integral part of that framework – helping to ensure firms and individuals are of a sufficiently high standard to meet regulatory requirements and to be trusted with the public’s money. Since 2018, the Central Bank has either authorised or approved close to 12,000 applications across a range of financial service providers, prospectuses and regulated financial products and has approved over 18,000 applications for senior positions in the financial sector in Ireland as part of our Fitness and Probity (“F&P”) regime. In 2023 alone, we received almost 3,300 applications for authorisation or approval and over 3,300 applications for senior positions.
In order to ensure the system and the public are protected and that trust is maintained, gatekeeping, and the phrase “regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland”, has to mean something in terms of standards and reassurance to the people of Ireland. As such, the process needs to be robust, and the standard needs to be appropriately high.
However, given the volume of applicants and the benefits of new entrants for consumers and the wider economy, to ensure the gate is not an undue barrier to entry it is also important that the process is efficient and that it is transparent.
As such in recent years as part of our ongoing commitment to efficiency and in the face of feedback that we could improve our clarity and responsiveness to incoming applications, we have increased engagement and significantly improved our processes. We have done this while maintaining the high standard the public expects of regulated providers of financial services and of us.
As I have said before this is not about prioritising speed over rigour, as the authorisation process is just the beginning of the regulatory and supervisory relationship, and our experience is that going through the gate too swiftly often presents issues on the other side.
Recognising that better prepared firms find the authorisation process the most straightforward, in addition to increasing the efficiency and transparency of our own processes we have improved our communications and have set clearer expectations for firms. This aims to deliver better and more complete applications to the benefit of both the applicants and the Central Bank, increasing the efficiency of the gate, while maintaining its robustness. Through this new report, we are providing further transparency to all stakeholders. The report sets out how we discharge and continue to refine our authorisation mandate by:
We hope it is useful for all stakeholders, and complements our other engagements and publications. Looking ahead, enhancing how we regulate and supervise across all sectors is a strategic priority of the Central Bank. This includes continuing to enhance our authorisation processes, in terms of clarity, predictability and transparency for those seeking to be authorised.
We will continue to improve our own process as well as our engagement and communication with the sector. We also want to learn from experience and welcome feedback from stakeholders on our processes.
END
Download the inaugural “Authorisations and Gatekeeping Report"
Sharon Donnery, Deputy Governor, Financial Regulation
I am very pleased to introduce the Central Bank of Ireland’s (“The Central Bank”) inaugural “Authorisations and Gatekeeping Report". The Central Bank regulates and supervises over 12,000 firms providing products and services in Ireland, the European Union (“EU”) and around the world. Our mission is to serve the public interest by maintaining monetary and financial stability while ensuring that the financial system operates in the best interests of consumers and the wider economy.
A strong regulatory and supervisory framework, ensuring we have a stable, resilient and trustworthy financial sector, enables us to deliver on our mission for the public. Our gatekeeping role is an integral part of that framework – helping to ensure firms and individuals are of a sufficiently high standard to meet regulatory requirements and to be trusted with the public’s money. Since 2018, the Central Bank has either authorised or approved close to 12,000 applications across a range of financial service providers, prospectuses and regulated financial products and has approved over 18,000 applications for senior positions in the financial sector in Ireland as part of our Fitness and Probity (“F&P”) regime. In 2023 alone, we received almost 3,300 applications for authorisation or approval and over 3,300 applications for senior positions.
In order to ensure the system and the public are protected and that trust is maintained, gatekeeping, and the phrase “regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland”, has to mean something in terms of standards and reassurance to the people of Ireland. As such, the process needs to be robust, and the standard needs to be appropriately high.
However, given the volume of applicants and the benefits of new entrants for consumers and the wider economy, to ensure the gate is not an undue barrier to entry it is also important that the process is efficient and that it is transparent.
As such in recent years as part of our ongoing commitment to efficiency and in the face of feedback that we could improve our clarity and responsiveness to incoming applications, we have increased engagement and significantly improved our processes. We have done this while maintaining the high standard the public expects of regulated providers of financial services and of us.
As I have said before this is not about prioritising speed over rigour, as the authorisation process is just the beginning of the regulatory and supervisory relationship, and our experience is that going through the gate too swiftly often presents issues on the other side.
Recognising that better prepared firms find the authorisation process the most straightforward, in addition to increasing the efficiency and transparency of our own processes we have improved our communications and have set clearer expectations for firms. This aims to deliver better and more complete applications to the benefit of both the applicants and the Central Bank, increasing the efficiency of the gate, while maintaining its robustness. Through this new report, we are providing further transparency to all stakeholders. The report sets out how we discharge and continue to refine our authorisation mandate by:
- Providing information on our authorisation framework and risk appetite;
- Explaining our priorities and expectations of applicant firms;
- Providing insight into the operation of the F&P regime; and
- Outlining the key challenges that we see for firms seeking authorisation.
We hope it is useful for all stakeholders, and complements our other engagements and publications. Looking ahead, enhancing how we regulate and supervise across all sectors is a strategic priority of the Central Bank. This includes continuing to enhance our authorisation processes, in terms of clarity, predictability and transparency for those seeking to be authorised.
We will continue to improve our own process as well as our engagement and communication with the sector. We also want to learn from experience and welcome feedback from stakeholders on our processes.
END
Download the inaugural “Authorisations and Gatekeeping Report"
We will be covering the topics of Central Bank of Ireland Authorisations and its role as Gatekeeper to the regulated Irish financial services community at the Fintech Ireland Summit taking place on Thursday 28 November 2024. Read more here.