2025 Edinburgh Authorisations Graduate Programme

About Us

At the FCA, we help to protect financial consumers and make markets work well by regulating nearly 45,000 firms. Our ambition is to become a more innovative, more assertive and more adaptive regulator; one that fully capitalises on data and technology, ensures consumer protection and market integrity, and responds well to the challenges we face. We’re looking for graduates to join our diverse and highly capable teams across the FCA.

About the Programme

• Programme Length: Two years
• Programme Type: Rotational

Authorisations is the FCA’s supervisory gateway – we decide who can undertake regulated activities in the UK.

As the first point of contact for firms and individuals wanting to provide regulated financial services, working in Authorisations means you’ll see the start of a firm’s supervisory journey. The work is challenging but varied. As a gateway supervisor, you’ll make decisions on whether to approve applications from firms and individuals. We get applications spanning a range of sectors and different financial models, including:

• retail and wholesale banks
• crypto firms
• credit unions
• insurance firms
• non-bank lenders
• debt purchasers and debt management firms
• e-money firms
• investment intermediaries
• firms who want to add wholesale permissions and products to their sales offering

Authorisations is also the home of our Supervision Hub. Supervision Hub staff quickly need to learn all about the full range of business the FCA undertakes and be able to communicate that to firms and consumers who contact us. It’s also a key area for the FCA in sourcing intelligence used across the organisation to help us ensure an appropriate degree of protection for consumers and maintain market integrity; the Supervision Hub is a stretching, challenging place to work and is recognised as one of the best places to work to learn about almost all aspects of regulation.

Authorisations also has several key operational teams including those focused on ensuring the smooth running of the directorate, the operation of the Financial Services Register (which is available to the public and used by millions of firms and consumers) and the systems that firms use to tell us about changes to their activities and key personnel.

Learning & Development

As a graduate in Authorisations, you’ll have the opportunity to study towards an Apprenticeship, Professional Qualification or enrol on a development pathway relevant to your graduate programme. We will also give you the support you need to develop your career at the FCA.

What we look for

We are seeking graduates from any degree discipline. You need to be resilient, analytical and confident in using your judgement in making regulatory decision. You will be curious and able to gather relevant information whilst building relationships across the organisation. An interest in governance and compliance is beneficial.

What we offer

We’re committed to making the FCA a great place to work. We do this by:

• Providing a rewarding environment, recognising that our people are motivated by meaningful work
• Maintaining a solid commitment to diversity and inclusion, allowing people to develop and progress without barriers
• Looking after the well-being of our people, ensuring that they are safe and well and appropriately cared for
• Promoting an environment in which people are valued and respected

Beyond this, we offer all our graduates a competitive range of benefits, including:

• Base salary of £33,000
• Adaptable working options
• Private health care
• Career and family leave
• Non-contributory pension
• Charity and volunteering initiatives
• Minimum of 25 days’ holiday
• Sports and social clubs
• Subsidised on-site fitness centre (London only)
• Free eye tests
• Subsidised restaurant
• Interest-free season ticket loans.

Please note:

• We only accept ONE application per person for our 2025 programmes, therefore, please apply to your first-choice programme. Any additional applications will not be progressed.
• Your application and any work you submit throughout the recruitment process must be all your own. You will not allow another person to complete any parts of the assessment nor submit responses provided or generated by an AI assistant or other similar software.
• Applicants must have obtained or be on track to achieve a minimum 2:1 degree from any university.
• Applicants for the 2025 graduate programmes must have graduated or be in their final year of study.