Back to "Business as Usual": The PRA's 2021-22 Business Plan

In its Business Plan for 2021-22 the PRA looks to move past a year dominated by Covid-19 and return its focus to "business as usual", while continuing to manage the ongoing pandemic fallout.

The PRA's strategic goals for the upcoming year are:

• Robust prudential standards and supervision
• Adapt to market changes and horizon scanning
• Financial resilience
• Operational resilience
• Recovery and resolution
• Competition
• EU withdrawal
• Efficiency and effectiveness

The Business Plan explains in detail how the PRA intends to deliver these strategic goals. There's a lot to digest here, but some of the highlights and planned PRA publications include:

• Robust prudential standards and supervision: We should expect to see the PRA's final policy on the revised Capital Requirements Regulation in the second half of 2021, and a consultation on the implementation of Basel 3.1 ahead of the implementation date of 1 January 2023.
• Adapt to market changes and horizon scanning: The PRA will continue its work on developing climate-related expectations for firms. The PRA will make the supervision of climate change-related financial risks part of its "business as usual", ensuring that firms see this as a priority.
• Financial and operational resilience: Regular stress testing will resume, and a final policy is expected on the supervision of international banks operating in the UK. The PRA will also assess whether firms can meet its operational resilience policy expectations by the time these come into force on 31 March 2022.
• Recovery and resolution: The PRA plans to take forward implementation of the Resolvability Assessment Framework. This Framework will set out the processes for assessing the resolvability of UK banks and building societies. The final policy (published jointly with the Bank of England) is expected in the first half of 2021.

In the Business Plan forward, the Chief Executive also stresses the importance of diversity in the financial sector, with plans for a joint FCA-PRA discussion paper in the summer, and additional steps planned to improve diversity and inclusion within the PRA itself.

The PRA's plans promise another busy year to come.