Attestations

Find out how and why we use attestations as a supervisory tool.

An attestation is a firm's formal statement that it will take, or has taken, an action we require. We use attestations as a supervisory tool to ensure that regulated firms - and senior individuals within them – are clearly accountable for taking the actions we require, often without our ongoing regulatory involvement.

The most usual situations when we ask for attestations include:

  • Notification – The most appropriate senior individual(s) within a firm attest to notify us if an emerging risk changes in its nature or magnitude. They are therefore responsible for ensuring the firm appropriately monitors the risk.
  • Undertaking – The most appropriate senior individual(s) within a firm attest to complete actions within a specified timescale, however they are not required to confirm to us that they have been completed.
  • Self-certification – The most appropriate senior individual(s) within a firm attest to undertake the completion of actions within a specified timescale. They are also required to confirm that they have been completed.
  • Verification – The most appropriate senior individual(s) within a firm attest to undertake the completion of actions within a specified timescale. They are then required to provide verification that the risks identified have been mitigated and resolved.

Quarterly information

We publish information on how often we request attestations on a quarterly basis.

Table 1: Number of attestations by sector and conduct classification for Q3 2023/24 (October - December 2023) 

Sector

Dedicated supervision firms

Portfolio supervision firms

Total

Retail banking

0

1

1

Wholesale Financial Markets

0

3

3

Investment management

0

0

0

General insurance and protection

0

7

7

Pensions and retirement income

0

0

0

Retail lending

0

6

6

Retail investments

0

7

7

Total:

0

24

24

 

Table 2: Number of attestations by quarter and conduct classification for the most recent four quarters 

Quarter 

Dedicated supervision firms

Portfolio supervision firms

Total:

Q3 2023/24 0 24 24
Q2 2023/24 3 8 11
Q1 2023/24 0 6 6
Q4 2022/23 2 10 12

Total:

5

48

53

Notes to the tables:

  1. The numbers are correct as of 31 December 2023. 
  2. The quarters are split according to financial year (i.e. Q1 starts 1 April). 
  3. GIPP attestations are not included in these results. 

Download historic attestations as a PDF

Page updates

: Information changed Updated historic attestations pdf
: Information changed Quarterly information updated
: Information added Latest quarterly information.
: Editorial amendment Updates to page features for website refresh.
: Information changed Quarterly information Table 1, Table 2 and notes to tables. Updated data spreadsheet.
: Information changed Quarterly information Table 1, Table 2 and notes to tables. Updated data spreadsheet.
: Document update Number of attestations by sector and conduct classification
: Information changed Quarterly information Table 1, Table 2 and notes to tables. Updated data spreadsheet.
: Information changed Quarterly information Table 1, Table 2 and notes to tables. Updated data spreadsheet.
: Information added Updated for Q2 2020/21 (July – September 2020)