ABSTRACT
The Senior Managers Regime (SMR) came into effect on 7 March 2016. It applies to banks, PRA-regulated investment firms, building societies and credit unions. This chapter covers the functional scope of the SMR; the administrative arrangements born of the SMR, namely responsibility maps and statements of responsibility, and the requirements on the handover of responsibilities from one senior manager to another. It reviews the continued fitness and propriety of senior managers; the so-called 'duty of responsibility' at sections 66A(5) and 66B(5) FSMA, provisions which in practice may well make or break HM Treasury's commitment to ensure that senior executives are personally accountable for major shortcomings. The chapter focuses on the criminal offence under section 36 of the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013 of causing a financial institution to fail, an offence that is premised on the exercise of a senior management function.
