Our Approach to Authorisation 

The Financial Regulator is responsible for the authorisation and ongoing supervision of most financial service providers in Ireland.

Within the Financial Regulator, Financial Institutions & Funds Authorisation (FIFA) is the department responsible for processing all applications for authorisation, with the exception of Credit Unions (which are the responsibility of the Registrar of Credit Unions).

In 2007, we authorised approximately 4,200 financial service providers and are currently responsible for the supervision of almost 13,000 entities.  Some financial service providers may have authorisations under more than one category.

The principal criteria for assessing applications for authorisation are the:

• Acceptability and transparency of the ownership of the financial service provider
• Fitness and probity of individual directors and senior management
• Adequacy of proposed capital to be invested
• Adequacy of internal controls and risk management systems
• Level of resources and expertise of staff