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Gabriel is being replaced: How will this affect your firm?

Jan 17, 2020 12:00:00 AM

What’s happening?

The FCA’s Gabriel platform is more than a decade old and it is showing its age. Its 120,000 individual users will need to switch to a new system later this year. Shortly before Christmas, the Association of Professional Compliance Consultants (APCC) met the FCA to find out more about the forthcoming changeover from Gabriel to a successor data collection platform. What did the APCC learn? The key points are:

    • Why the change?

More than 50,000 firms rely on Gabriel to submit data to the FCA. Now recording more than half a million transactions annually, Gabriel relies on technology that is no longer state of the art. The FCA has concluded that an overhaul is required to future-proof the platform and provide a ‘better user experience’.

    • What is changing?

Currently server-based, Gabriel will be moved over to a cloud-based system. Its coding will be updated to allow faster updates. Firms will have the ability to add more users than the current system allows, and data input will be autosaved every two minutes. This will protect users against disruption should the platform crash or users experience IT disruption. There will also be new data validations flagging up sooner when any data input breaches parameter tolerances.

    • When will the changes take effect?

A precise date has yet to be confirmed, but a phased changeover is expected some time this year. Once a date is announced, users will have 90 days in which to re-register. The FCA is planning to send out emails at intervals ahead of the launch, reminding users what’s happening when, and what they need to do to migrate to the new Gabriel platform.

    • What do you need to do?

Ahead of announcing a launch date for the new Gabriel, the FCA has asked firms to undertake ‘housekeeping duties’ e.g. removing old users and ensuring details on current users are correct, email addresses in particular. Then it’s a question of awaiting further updates and making sure all users are ready to re-register when prompted.

    • Will I experience disruption?

During the changeover, neither Gabriel nor Connect will be available to users, but migration will be carried out over a weekend to minimise disruption. Firms will be issued with new login details, which will then work for both Gabriel and Connect. For the launch phase, at least, no new information will be required when completing Gabriel forms. Thereafter it will be a case of watch this space.

How can Thistle help you?

If you’d like to know more about preparing for the Gabriel changeover, or any other aspect of FCA compliance, our expert team is here to help. Contact us on 0207 436 0630 or email info@thistleinitiatives.co.uk.