Regulatory overview
This chapter is the regulatory map of the product. Every supervisory surface in Lending Agent Oversight, the AR register, the breach triage queue, the file review workspace, the annual fitness review packet, traces back to a specific Handbook rule or piece of finalised guidance. Each page below states what the rule requires and how the product surfaces compliance evidence.
The product takes no view on whether a principal firm is itself compliant. Compliance is the principal’s responsibility under FSMA s.39. The product’s job is to make supervision legible, attributable, and retrievable, so that the principal can demonstrate compliance on demand.
Scope of the regulatory framework
Section titled “Scope of the regulatory framework”Lending Agent Oversight is built for FCA-authorised principal firms supervising networks of Appointed Representatives (ARs) and Introducer Appointed Representatives (IARs). The rules below apply to all principals; sector conduct sourcebooks (MCOB, ICOBS, CONC) overlay per skin.
| Reference | Topic | Product page |
|---|---|---|
| FSMA s.39 | Statutory foundation of the AR regime, vicarious responsibility | FSMA s.39 and the AR regime |
| SUP 12 | The AR rulebook: definitions, appointment, contract, continuing obligations, termination, records | SUP 12 |
| SUP 12.6A | Enhanced oversight obligations introduced by PS22/11 | SUP 12, PS22/11 |
| PS22/11 | December 2022 policy statement that raised the supervision bar | PS22/11 |
| SUP 15 | Notifications to the FCA, including breach reporting timing regimes | SUP 15 |
| SYSC 9 | Record-keeping floor and audit retention | SYSC 9 |
| SYSC 15A | Operational resilience for principal firms over Important Business Services | SYSC 15A |
| DISP 1 | Complaints handling, including AR-originated complaints reporting at principal level | DISP 1 |
| PRIN 2A, FG22/5 | Consumer Duty for retail business carried on by ARs | Consumer Duty |
| FG21/1 | Fair treatment of vulnerable customers, evidenced at network level | Vulnerable customers |
| SUP 12.6A + PRIN 2A annual cycle | Combined annual self-assessment and Consumer Duty board report | Annual self-assessment |
| Cross-cutting | Hash-chained audit log as the spine of supervisory evidence | Audit-as-evidence |
| All of the above | Flat citation table with last-checked dates | Handbook citation index |
How to read this chapter
Section titled “How to read this chapter”Each page follows the same structure: what the rule says, the obligations that flow from it, and the product surface that evidences compliance. Where a Handbook reference has not been verified directly against the current text, a [verify] marker is preserved so a reviewer can ground-truth it before the docs are quoted in a sales context.
The intent is that a head of compliance reading these pages can map every rule that touches their network to a row, a screen, or an audit object in the product.