Introduction to our service standards portfolio
Service standards are specified levels of performance that the FSA has agreed to meet in performing its regulatory functions. Most are voluntary agreements, however some relate to provisions in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
The service standards portfolio provides you with information about the areas of our service that we measure, how we are performing against these measures and our monitoring of customer satisfaction. Standards apply to a range of our services, including how we deal with telephone enquiries, correspondence and applications.
We will introduce further standards where they will help us meet your needs. It is vital to the interests of our stakeholders that we make the right regulatory decision and on occasion this will mean that some transactions take longer than others. Given a choice between meeting a standard and taking more time to make the right decision, we will take more time.
View our most recent performance against our service standards.
Key changes to our service standards
New Standards
With effect from 1 October 2006, we have introduced a further 3 new standards. The first performance figures for these standards will be given in the next update to this account in April 2007. The new standards all relate to the availability of key FSA on-line systems:
- the Firms On-line system; (CM11.1)
- the Electronic Submission system (ELS); (CM11.2) and
- the FSA Register system: (CM11.3)
We have also introduced improvements to our targets for 2 existing standards, as explained below. We continue to work to increase the range of processes against which we monitor customer satisfaction, and aim to introduce further targets in the next update.
Tightening our standards
We are constantly seeking to improve our performance, and have tightened two of our existing service standards with effect from 1 October 2006:
- Standard for Authorising firms. Target timescale reduced from 4 months to 3 months.
- Standard for determining most waivers. Target increased from 85% to 90%
We will continue to review our service standards regularly based on your feedback to ensure we deliver high quality service to our customers.
Other changes
- We have amended the wording of the waivers service standard to ensure that it is clear that the 20 day service standard target which applies to most waivers does not cover more complex waivers such as Capital Requirements Directive waivers.
- We have also changed the format of the Performance Account in this update to help simplify its navigation. If you have any comments on this, or suggestions on how we might further improve the usefulness of the performance account, then please contact us at: performance.account@fsa.gov.uk. We welcome your feedback.
Customer Satisfaction
On 1 April we launched targets for the 'satisfaction' of customers who have been through eight of our core regulatory processes.
GfK NOP, an independent research company, conducts telephone surveys on our behalf, the results of which are anonymised. We conduct satisfaction surveys relating to:
- Corporate Authorisation applications;
- Waiver applications;
- Variation of Permission applications;
- Change of Controller applications;
- Cancellation applications;
- Collective Investment Scheme applications;
- Outward Passporting applications; and
- Individual Approval applications.
Further information on customer satisfaction.