FCA to repeat Covid-19 impact survey on the financial resilience of firms

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced its intention to repeat its survey to determine the impact of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic on the financial resilience of firms.

The regulator issued the first phase of the Covid-19 impact survey in June 2020 covering around 13,000 firms across 15 supervision portfolios (tranche 1), and then rolled this out to a further 9,500 firms in 21 portfolios (tranche 2) at the beginning of August.

The FCA will be repeating this survey for firms in tranche 1 in an effort to understand the change in firms’ financial positions as the pandemic has progressed.  The survey will be sent out to the relevant firms on one for the following dates:

Batch 1: to be sent on 16 September – response due by 30 September

Batch 2: to be sent on 17 September – response due by 1 October

Batch 3: to be sent on 18 September – response due by 2 October

Batch 4: to be sent on 22 September – response due by 6 October

Affected BIBA members should expect to receive a warm-up/introduction email at least one day prior to them receiving the survey.

The survey will include two extra questions this time round to cover the potential impact of Brexit, as the end of the transition period is nearing. Therefore, this repeat survey will include 12 questions in total, designed to give the FCA information about the following important areas:

• Liquidity/ cash availability and needs
• Recent financial performance
• Scale of business activity
• Access to government schemes
• Impact of Brexit.

Firms will be emailed a link to complete the survey online (not through Gabriel). The FCA said it has designed the survey to be easy to complete even via a mobile phone and it expects firms to require no more than an hour to complete it. The link sent to each firm will be unique to them.  If firms need a different individual within their organisation (or a consultant) to answer and submit the survey, the link can be forwarded to the required person.

Completion of the survey is mandatory under section 165 of the Financial Services & Markets Act (FSMA) 2000.

The FCA said that the survey has been designed to be quick and simple to complete. BIBA has been informed however, if due to exceptional circumstances a firm cannot access its financial information, they will need to ensure that they complete the questions where the relevant information is available.

The FCA will send the repeat survey to all firms in Tranche 2 in November. The regulator will communicate with affected firms before the second tranche of survey is sent out.

Authored by BIBA