The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has detailed changes to its Handbook from September 2013 to November 2013.  Changes to the Controllers and Close Links Reporting provisions require that these reports now be submitted electronically through the GABRIEL system.  This is to reduce submission errors and issues with reports not being logged as received. 

FCA recognised the concerns raised by respondents to the consultation that this is
a significant change and could require system changes in a short period of time.  To address this, and allow firms time to implement technical solutions where manual entry is not feasible due to group size or complexity, FCA has delayed the implementation of the new monthly close links form (REP001a) until 1 March 2014. 

The annual reporting requirements come into force on 31 December 2013, although in practice no reports will be due before 30 April 2014.

 Related Link:

http://www.fca.org.uk/static/documents/handbook-notices/fca-handbook-notice-06.pdf