FHDDS32360 | Approval, revoking the approval and variations: approval – Deciding whether to grant or reject approval

Once you have completed the pre-approval activity, and received any further information that you have requested, a decision must be made either to approve or reject the application.

It is vital that the decision made is fully substantiated by your findings. You must ensure you have evidence to support your decision; generalities, hearsay or gut feelings will not suffice.
As the assurance officer you are the ‘decision maker’ in terms of granting or rejecting approval and are responsible for inputting the decision on to RCM.

Meeting the ‘fit and proper’ standards is required by law and you should reject the application if any of the criteria are not met.
In addition to fit and proper, your pre-approval activity will have involved confirming that the applicant is aware of the obligations when approved under the scheme and you will have discussed what preparations are being made.

Note: Before 1st April 2019, it was not to be expected that the applicant would have due diligence or record keeping processes in place at the time of application as these are not required by law until 1st April 2019 and therefore you should not have rejected an application on those grounds.

If after consideration of all the evidence you deem it appropriate you should grant the approval.