Subject to section 23A, a regulated financial service provider or holding company must not appoint a person to perform a pre‑approval controlled function unless the Bank has approved the appointment in writing. For that purpose the Bank may, by written notice, require the person or specified officers or employees of the proposed appointing firm to produce specified documents, provide specified information, answer questions or attend for interview, and the notice must specify the time and place for compliance; nothing in the notice can require production, disclosure or answers that could not be compelled in a court. Where the appointment is to a pre‑approval controlled function in relation to a regulated financial service provider and the proposer is not yet regulated, the Bank’s information‑requesting powers apply to that proposer as if it were a regulated financial service provider.

The Bank may refuse approval where it considers the person is not of appropriate fitness and probity or is unable to decide that from available information; refusal may also follow failure to comply with a request under the notice or where any of the grounds in paragraphs (a) to (h) of section 25(3) apply. A refusal under the fitness and probity ground is an appealable decision for the purposes of Part VIIA of the Act of 1942.