Fees and levies

Find out about the fees we charge and what they cover, and the levies we collect for organisations that are part of the regulatory system.

We are independent of Government. To finance our work we charge fees to:

the firms we authorise
some other bodies such as recognised investment exchanges or registered firms

There are 3 types of fee:

application[1] – when you ask us to authorise your firm
change to permissions[2] – when you want to change a permission for an authorised activity
annual[3] (periodic) – which is payable each year

We also collect fees and levies to pay for the costs of the:

Payment Systems Regulator[4]
Prudential Regulation Authority[5]
Financial Ombudsman Service[6]
Financial Services Compensation Scheme[7]
Money and Pensions Service[8] (Financial Guidance levies)
Financial Reporting Council[9]
Illegal Money Lending Team
Economic Crime Levy (ECL)

You can find our rules on fees in the Fees Manual[10] section of the Handbook.

Fees to apply for authorisation

If you wish to register with us or get authorised, we will charge you an application fee.

The fee is not refundable, even if your application is unsuccessful.

If you apply to be authorised, the amount of the fee will depend on the:

regulated activities your firm wishes to carry on
complexity of your application

There are 10 fee categories – see application fees[1] for more information, including the price of each category.

Fees to change permissions

We charge a fee to change (vary) a permission, for example, where a firm wants to start arranging mortgages.

If the change puts you in an additional fee-block from your existing one, we will charge you 50% of the relevant authorisation application fee[11].

If the change in permission does not put you into an additional fee-block, the fee will be a Category 2 charge.

We will not charge you if you wish to reduce your permissions.

If you believe you should not be charged, or that you are being charged the incorrect amount, please call us on 0300 500 0597 and do not pay the fee until your concern has been resolved.

Read more about fee-blocks[10] in Chapter 4, Annex 1A of our Handbook[13].

Annual fees

How we calculate your fee

The amount we charge you will depend on:

the type of regulated activities your firm carries out (fee-blocks)
the extent of your firm’s activities (amount of business undertaken)
how much it costs us to regulate these types of activities

Fee rates can change each year, depending on firm population and size. For an explanation of fee changes, please see our fee rate movements[9] page.

Read more information about how we calculate your fees[10].

How and when we collect your fees

We will invoice you from July onwards each year. We will issue a single invoice covering your FCA fee plus fees and levies for any other regulatory organisations, as appropriate.

Where your total fees exceed £50,000 in the previous year, we will invoice you for 50% of that fee, payable by 1st April. This is called our ‘on account’ fee.

Read about our annual fee cycle[3].

You can also read our latest consultation papers and policies on fees[11].

When to pay

You must pay by the due date, which is usually 30 days from the date of the invoice we send you.