On 2 December 2015, Tracey McDermott, Acting Chief Executive at the FCA, delivered a speech at the Personal Accountability in the Financial Services Industry conference in which she provided a high level discussion on personal accountability in the context of the incoming implementation of the Senior Managers Regime (SMR). Ms McDermott expressed the following two hopes/expectations regarding firms’ approaches to the SMR: “The first is that there is a clear focus from firms on meeting the spirit of the new rules, rather than approaching this with a narrow focus on what the letter of the law requires. The second, linked task, is that firms must take ownership of the regime and embrace the opportunities it presents for their business.”