When the FCA grants your application, you become an authorised firm. That's a genuine achievement — most of the effort is in getting there. But authorisation brings its own continuing responsibilities, and knowing what they are means you start on the front foot rather than scrambling later. Here's the sequence after approval.
You appear on the Financial Services Register
Once authorised, your firm is added to the FCA's public Financial Services Register — the official record of authorised firms, showing your permissions and status. This matters commercially as well as legally: lenders, finance providers and customers can look you up, and many lenders will check the Register before accepting you as an introducer. Being on it is often the green light that lets you formalise arrangements with finance partners.
You can go live — within your permissions
With authorisation granted, you can lawfully carry on the regulated activity you applied for — typically credit broking under limited permission. It's worth being precise here: you can do what your permission covers, and no more. If your authorisation is for limited permission credit broking, that's what you're cleared for; taking on activities beyond your permissions would itself be a breach. Make sure everyone in the business understands the scope of what's been granted.
Your compliance framework goes from paper to practice
The policies you prepared for the application — financial promotions, complaints handling, vulnerable customers, financial crime — now have to be lived, not just filed. That means your finance advertising follows the financial promotions rules, you handle any complaints the way your procedure sets out, and you treat customers in line with the Consumer Duty. The FCA expects the framework you described to be the framework you operate.
Your first regulatory returns
Authorised firms report to the FCA periodically through its RegData system. For limited permission consumer credit firms this includes an annual return capturing information about your regulated activity. There's also a newer return, CCR009, for relevant ancillary credit firms, with its own reporting cycle. The practical point is that these returns have deadlines, and late submission carries a penalty — so it's worth diarising them as soon as you're authorised. Our guide to ongoing obligations for limited permission firms covers the reporting picture in full.
You pay an ongoing annual fee
Authorisation isn't a one-off cost. Authorised firms pay an annual periodic fee to the FCA — for the smallest consumer credit firms this is modest, but it is a recurring commitment, separate from the £550 you paid to apply. Budget for it as part of the ongoing cost of being authorised. Our cost guide sets out what to expect.
You keep the FCA informed of changes
If significant things change — your business model, the person holding the SMF29 function, your legal structure, or the activities you carry on — you generally need to tell the FCA, and some changes require a formal application to vary your permission or update your details. Authorisation is an ongoing relationship with the regulator, not a certificate you file away.
The bottom line
After approval, the headline is simple: you're authorised, you're on the Register, and you can offer customer finance lawfully — but you now carry continuing obligations to report, to comply, and to keep the FCA informed. None of it is onerous for a well-run limited permission firm, but it does need to be on your radar from day one. Going in with eyes open is what keeps authorisation a straightforward, lasting asset for your business.