Senior manager accountability – five steps to protect yourself

One of the most common requests fromsenior managers for legal regulatory advice is what their obligations to take‘reasonable steps’ mean in practice, and how they can ensure they arefulfilling this requirement. Adam Jamieson and Samantha Paul set out a framework.

AdamJamieson is a partner in the Financial Regulationteam, where SamanthaPaul is a principal knowledge development lawyer,at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. Contact them on adam.jamieson@bclplaw.com andsamantha.paul@bclplaw.com.

The context – increasing senior managerexposure

After years of planning, the Senior Managers andCertification Regime came into force for banks in March 2016 and has since beenrolled-out to cover the wider financial services sector. Five years later, asthe deadline for the final implementation of the certification regime andconduct rules for Financial Conduct Authority solo-regulated firms passed on 31March, the trigger for the SMCR following the financial crisis – ensuringindividual accountability – rings as true today as ever. The regulators remaincommitted to ensuring that it is not just firms, but also the individualsworking within those firms, that are on the hook should something go wrong.