The Monetary Conduct Authority has missed a number of working service targets in communications and utility processing instances for the 2021/22 monetary yr.
The regulator revealed its working service metrics right this moment, alongside its annual report.
It missed its goal for answering phone calls to the Supervision Hub from companies for the second consecutive yr.
The FCA mentioned the failure was a results of ‘important spikes’ in agency name volumes on account of actions, together with migration to new reporting and invoicing programs, agency attestations and queries about Coronavirus-related surveys.
A number of Monetary Planners have been important on social media over the previous yr concerning the variety of Covid-related surveys they’ve been requested to finish by the regulator.
The working service metrics additionally revealed that the FCA missed its 5 day goal to course of appointed consultant notifications over half of the time.
The regulator processed notifications throughout the goal 44.7% of the time, decrease than the 48.1% seen within the earlier yr.
It mentioned the delays had been on account of “workers strain, which was pushed by the numerous variety of solo-regulated firm-related purposes acquired following the introduction of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR) and the affect of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The regulator added that it has to this point recruited 95 further staff for the authorisations division to enhance processing instances.
Working service metrics had been additionally missed in responding to Freedom of Data (FOI) requests throughout the statutory timeframe of 20 days.
The regulator accomplished 67% of FOI requests throughout the timeframe, towards its goal of 90%. It mentioned “that is beneath the requirements we count on of ourselves” however that it expects to fulfill its goal metrics throughout 2022/23.
It additionally missed its targets on GDPR. The regulator operates to a goal of 90% for knowledge requests throughout the one month timeframe, however in 2021/22 responded to 44% of requests inside this era.
There have been a number of areas the place the regulator made enhancements towards its working service metrics.
The FCA closed 170% extra complaints in 2021/22 than it did within the earlier yr, with 2,211 closures. This included complaints about its regulation of London Capital & Finance plc and acknowledging 93.7% of complaints inside 5 working days of receipt, in comparison with 65.7% in 2020/21.
The regulator additionally improved its client correspondence response instances. It offered a response to client correspondence from electronic mail/net kind/webchat inside two working days 87.8% of the time, a rise from 80.4% final yr.
