Prepare an FCA authorisation or variation with an Otto-drafted blueprint and document checklist — then keep every ongoing regulatory return on one deadline calendar, with owners, evidence and reminders. Your whole FCA relationship, in one place.
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Book a ConsultationA blank-page Regulatory Business Plan, RAO Articles you can’t decode, a fee schedule you can’t find and no clear list of what the FCA actually wants to see. This is where every new firm — and every Variation of Permission — gets stuck.
Business plan drafting, RAO permission scoping, SMF structuring, Form A / C / E assembly, fee calculations. Then you wait. The FCA warns: “if your application isn't complete, it could take up to 12 months.” Most firms get there by accident.
Miss a Connect Form. Under-scope your RAO Articles. Under-capitalise. Understate SMF responsibilities. The FCA doesn't reject. They come back with queries, and the 180-day clock resets. Months disappear to correspondence.
The FCA doesn’t just want a form. It wants policies, a monitoring plan, an SM&CR structure, a financial-crime framework and a risk register — all in place before you’re authorised. Most firms build that from a blank page, document by document, while the clock runs.
Adding a permission? Removing one? Swapping SMFs? Applying for a new AR? Most firms track these in a scattered email thread. No live status, no 180-day counter, no FCA case officer record. No audit trail when the board asks.
If your authorisation currently lives in a blank Word document, a half-remembered list of requirements and a 180-day anxiety spiral — this is for you.
A first-time applicant and a compliance consultancy running 40 client authorisations get the same engine. Each client’s data stays walled off in its own workspace — one fixed monthly fee, no per-application or per-client charge.
One engine for everyone — first-time applicant or consultancy running forty applications at once. Otto writes the report and the document checklist; the 180-day countdown starts the moment you submit.
Three things you actually get: Otto’s requirements report, a document checklist (most of it already built across your platform), and a live 180-day tracker.
Otto writes your Application Requirements Report against live FCA guidance: what the regulator expects for your exact activity, your RAO Articles with scope qualifiers, the Senior Managers your SM&CR category requires and the current application fee — every claim quoted from the handbook, not paraphrased.
Every document the FCA expects for your activity — generated, Handbook-referenced, grouped into categories. Tick each off, upload the evidence, watch the count climb. Already on RegTechPRO? Much of the pack is ready to attach.
| Document category | What Otto includes | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
Application Forms & Identity
COND 2.1–2.2
|
FCA Connect application · certified ID & address · Certificate of Incorporation | 0 / 6 |
|
Regulatory Business Plan
COND 2.6
|
Business model · customer journey · market analysis · risk register | 0 / 8 |
|
Financial Documentation
COND 2.4
|
3-year projections · opening balance sheet · capital adequacy | 0 / 6 |
|
Policies & Procedures
CONC · SYSC
|
Responsible lending · disclosure · financial-crime controls · Consumer Duty | 0 / 13 |
|
Governance, Personnel & Fit & Proper
SUP 10C · FIT
|
Statements of Responsibility · SMF Form As · DBS & credit checks | 0 / 9 |
The moment you submit, the tracker captures the regulator-facing record — submission date, FCA case reference, named case officer, acknowledgement and expected decision date — and counts down the statutory 180-day assessment window. No spreadsheet, no diarised reminders.
From any FCA authorisation or MLR registration to a live 180-day countdown — the three views that run your application.
One dashboard for every live application. 5-tile KPI strip across Total, Preparation, Submission, Assessment and Authorised, colour-coded by lifecycle stage. Each row shows firm, activity type, stage chip and progress bar. Click a row, see the full application record inline.
Otto's 8-section Application Requirements Report: Executive Summary, Regulatory Business Plan, Governance & Responsible Individuals, Permissions & RAO Scope, Capital & Financial Requirements, Fees, Compliance Framework, Common Pitfalls. Every section cites the FCA handbook verbatim, with RAO Article precision (36A, 39D, 39E, 60B) and SM&CR role mapping.
The FCA Status sub-tab. Submission date, case officer, acknowledgement date, expected decision date, days elapsed. All live. A full-width Assessment Timeline progress bar against the statutory 180-day window. The sentence your board wants: “73 days in, decision expected in 107.”
Otto is trained on FSMA, RAO, COND, SUP 6, PERG, SM&CR and FEES 3 Annex 1. It generates an 8-section Application Requirements Report for any FCA regulated activity, drafts every Regulatory Business Plan section from your firm data, and answers your authorisation questions with handbook-cited answers.
Otto does three things for FCA applications — generates your 8-section requirements report the moment you pick an activity, drafts each Business Plan section from your firm data, and answers any authorisation question, handbook-cited, in seconds.
“Which RAO Article covers debt counselling?” “What's the Category 3 fee?” “Which SMFs does a Core firm need?” Otto answers from FSMA, the RAO, SUP 6, PERG, COND and live FCA guidance — in seconds, with citations.
It generates your 8-section Application Requirements Report, drafts your Regulatory Business Plan, maps your RAO Article scope, and answers any authorisation question your team has. See it map your live application in a demo.
Once you’re authorised, the FCA expects a steady stream of returns — for the life of the firm. The tracker turns that open-ended obligation into one calendar you actually stay on top of.
RMAR, REP-CRIM, the CMAR, the annual complaints return (DISP), MIFIDPRU and more — ready-made templates you add in a click, plus anything bespoke.
Every return gets a due date, an owner and a status. A deadlines bar surfaces anything overdue or due soon the moment you open the module — so nothing slips.
Upload the filed return against its task and mark it submitted — the next one schedules itself. A complete, dated audit trail you can show you keep.
Adding or changing a permission later runs as a path off the original application — full history kept, not a fresh start — with an effective date on every permission.
From a first-time applicant to a consultant running multiple client applications. Here is how firms are using an Otto-authored blueprint to get authorised.
As a new credit broker facing a blank-page Business Plan, we used FCA Applications & Reporting. Otto generated the 8-section blueprint in under a minute — right RAO Articles, the £1,120 Cat 3 fee, the exact SMFs. The 42-item checklist saved three weeks of guessing. Authorised in five months.
I run authorisations for a book of 14 clients. Otto produces each blueprint — activity-correct, handbook-cited, fee right every time — so I focus on the bespoke 10% that needs my hands. The 180-day tracker gives every client the same “73 days in, decision expected in 107” board line. Worth the subscription twice over.
Everything you need to know about the 8-section Otto blueprint, the FCA applications and variations it covers, the 180-day assessment countdown and how the tracker keeps every ongoing FCA return on schedule.