1320 of these "variation of permission" (VOP) letters have been sent this week, 1082 in respect of mortgages (or mixed business) and 238 in respect of insurance.
Firms receiving a VOP letter will be set to receive formal notification of their variation of permission for the additional areas of business later this year unless the FSA reconsiders following significant change in their circumstances or new information emerging in the interim.
Sarah Wilson, Director of FSA High Street Firms Division, said:
"This first dispatch of VOP letters marks further important progress in the authorisation process for mortgage and general insurance business. It runs in parallel with bringing a large number of new firms into regulation for the first time. From now on, VOP notices will be sent out regularly to existing FSA firms in the normal course of our authorisation work along with "minded-to-authorise" letters to new firms".
So far 4056 firms that are already authorised by the FSA have registered to apply to vary their permission to carry on either mortgage or general insurance business and 3460 of these have submitted an application.
Other data published by the FSA show that as of 30 April:
_ 15046 firms from the mortgage and general insurance sectors have registered with the FSA for an application pack – 6371 from mortgage sector firms, 5199 from the primary general insurance market; and 3476 who sell general insurance products alongside other goods and services; and
_ 3684 applications from mortgage firms and 1896 from insurance firms have been received.
A further update on all these data (including progress on issuing minded to authorise letters) will be issued next week after the 31 May deadline for general insurance firms wishing to qualify for an application discount.
