A freedom of information request submitted by law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain showed the time taken for authorisations had risen by 13% since June 2011 when the average authorisation period was 17.3 weeks.
Steven Francis, partner at RPC, said: “This represents lost opportunities for businesses which are being stalled by the authorisation process. It augers badly for the future when there will be two separate organisations that will be authorising new businesses.
“Having to wait an inordinately long time for FSA approval has been a real bugbear in the financial services sector for the last two years.
“Authorisation times rocketed after the credit crunch as the FSA started to scrutinise the business plans for financial services start-ups to an unprecedented degree.
“The delays were starting to improve even though the FSA was still applying the same level of scrutiny but that is no longer the case.”
The FSA said waiting times depended on the complexity of businesses it was authorising and the numbers of people seeking approval. It added that the timeframes for processing applications would remain the same under the new regulatory structure.
