PRA accelerates regulatory approvals, meets new targets
The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has published its performance report for 2025/26, detailing its progress in accelerating regulatory approvals. The report covers Q4 and year-to-date performance against both existing and new, shorter service standards.
Accelerating the regulatory gateway
The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) is actively accelerating its regulatory approvals process, committing to faster decisions while maintaining a robust and proportionate gateway.
This commitment supports government plans to shorten legislative deadlines, with the PRA now targeting these more ambitious timelines.
The latest performance report covers Q4 (December 2025 to February 2026) and year-to-date (March 2025 to February 2026) data, presenting results against both existing statutory service standards and the new, shorter targets.
The report acknowledges a period of transition, as some cases closed earlier in the year were assessed under the previous deadlines.
In future reports, the PRA intends to primarily report against the new, accelerated standards.
For all firms, New Authorisations and Cancellations achieved 100% compliance with both old and new targets in Q4. Variation of Permission also maintained 100% compliance.
Diverse performance across firm types
The report provides granular performance data across various authorisation processes, segmented for 'All firms,' 'Deposit-taking firms,' and 'Insurance firms.'
Key processes include New Authorisations, Variation of Permission, Cancellations, Change in Control, Senior Managers Regime (SMR), and Passporting.
For deposit-taking firms in Q4, Variation of Permission and Cancellations achieved 100% compliance against both sets of targets, while SMR applications met 97% of the new two-month target.
Insurance firms also demonstrated strong compliance, with 100% for New Authorisations and Change in Control during Q4. The PRA has adjusted its 'Green' compliance threshold to 95% (from 98%) for most processes, excluding Change in Control, which remains at 100%.
Ambitious, yet transitional
The PRA's push for swifter regulatory approvals aligns with broader government objectives, reflecting an ambitious drive for efficiency.
However, the current data clearly indicates a system in an active state of transition, with performance still measured against a mix of old and new benchmarks.
The true measure of success will be seen when all processes consistently meet the more demanding, accelerated targets in future reporting periods.