Firms must collect the required information from April 2005. The first submissions will be due from July 2005 onwards depending on a firm’s accounting reference date. The majority of medium-sized firms will have to submit the report twice a year, within 30 business days of the end of the relevant reporting period
The RMAR form will be submitted online with no paper-based option. Firms with income of £60,000 to £5 million submit six-monthly; those with £5 million-plus will submit quarterly and those with less than £59,999 only submit once for 2005/06.
Firms that show up as anomalies in the FSA’s data analysis may be contacted by the FSA. The regulator can then investigate and check whether any action needs to be taken or not.
Ben Stafford, policy officer at AMI, said: “With ‘Mortgage-Day’ behind them, the bedding-down period will include getting to grips with the regulatory returns system. As with the run-up to regulation those firms who anticipate this and plan ahead will face the fewest problems.”
He added: “This is the glue that holds the FSA’s monitoring and supervision system together and all firms need to understand what data they need to collect. AMI will assist its members in getting to grips with this as it has with other areas of regulation.”
Karen Monaghan, managing director at The Kingsland Consultancy Ltd, said: “Thought has to be put in now in regards to how and what information the FSA requires. Systems need to be put into place and firms must be aware of their reporting periods.”
AMI will produce a factsheet on how to complete the forms and collect relevant information at a later date and is also assisting the FSA with a pilot of the system early in 2005.
