How to Prepare for a PRA Periodic Summary Meeting as CEO or Chair

A Periodic Summary Meeting is one of the clearest windows the PRA gives you into how it sees your firm. Treat it as the supervisory conversation it is: a structured test of whether the leadership understands the risks in the business, owns the remediation of weaknesses, and can be trusted to run the firm safely between formal touchpoints. Preparation is not a presentation exercise. It is a chance to demonstrate judgement.

Start with what the PRA has already told you

Read the most recent PSM letter line by line, alongside any s.166 outputs, Proactive Intervention Framework (PIF) stage rationale, and recent Dear CEO letters relevant to your sector. The PRA rarely surprises firms at a PSM. The agenda will track prior concerns, open mitigating actions, and emerging risks visible in your regulatory returns. If you cannot map every open supervisory concern to a named owner, a current status, and a credible completion date, you are not ready.

Pair this with your own internal risk picture: the latest ICAAP or ILAAP, recovery plan assumptions, risk appetite breaches, internal audit findings, and any management information that has moved materially since the last meeting. Where the PRA's view and your view diverge, work out why before the meeting, not during it.

Clarify the CEO and Chair split

Supervisors watch how the Chair and CEO interact. The Chair should be able to speak credibly to board effectiveness, challenge culture, succession, and how the non executives have tested management. The CEO owns the business, the numbers, and the remediation. If the Chair defers entirely to the CEO on governance questions, or the CEO cannot answer detailed operational questions without reaching for a colleague, that itself becomes a supervisory observation.

Agree in advance who leads on which topics. Rehearse the handoffs. Make sure the Chair has independently formed views, not briefing notes written by the executive.

Prepare for the hard questions, not the easy ones

Most firms over prepare the strategy update and under prepare the uncomfortable areas. Build a short list of the questions you would least like to be asked, and work through honest answers. Typical examples:

• Where is the firm not meeting its own risk appetite, and why has the board tolerated it?
• Which remediation programmes have slipped, and what does that say about execution capacity?
• What has the board done with the last internal audit red report?
• If a key SMF left tomorrow, who takes the role, and are they ready?
• What is the one thing that could cause this firm serious harm in the next twelve months?

If your answers rely on reassurance rather than evidence, keep working.

What good looks like on the day

Strong PSMs share a few features. Leaders acknowledge weaknesses before the supervisor raises them. Numbers are owned by the person speaking, not read from a pack. Disagreements with the PRA's view are expressed clearly and supported with analysis, not avoided. Commitments made in prior meetings are tracked and closed out, or explained honestly where they are not.

Weak PSMs tend to involve defensive framing, selective data, or a CEO and Chair who appear to be hearing concerns for the first time. Supervisors notice, and it shapes the tone of the follow up letter.

After the meeting

Debrief within forty eight hours. Capture what the PRA emphasised, what new questions emerged, and where the leadership felt least sure footed. Feed these into the board's forward agenda before the PSM letter arrives. The firms that use the PSM as a genuine input to governance, rather than an event to survive, build supervisory credibility over time, and credibility is the asset that matters most when something goes wrong.

The decision point: if you are reading this close to a scheduled PSM and cannot yet articulate the three issues the PRA is most likely to press you on, pause other preparation and start there.

Frequently Asked Questions

How far in advance should preparation start?

Six to eight weeks is typical for a well run firm. That allows time for a proper review of open findings, two preparation sessions with the Chair and CEO together, and a dry run with challenge from a trusted internal or external party.

Should we bring other executives into the meeting?

Usually no, unless the PRA has asked. The PSM is designed as a conversation with the CEO and Chair. Bringing a wider team can signal that the two accountable individuals are not across the detail.

How candid should we be about problems we have not yet solved?

Fully candid. Supervisors value accurate self assessment far more than optimistic framing. Acknowledging a problem, explaining the plan, and being realistic about timing builds trust. Underplaying it damages it, often permanently.

What if we disagree with the PRA's characterisation of an issue?

Say so, clearly and with evidence. Supervisors expect leaders to hold their own view. What they do not accept is passive agreement in the room followed by inaction, or pushback that is not grounded in analysis.

How does the PSM connect to PIF stage?

The meeting informs the PRA's judgement on PIF stage, but it is not the only input. Consistent engagement, quality of management information, and the track record of delivering on commitments between meetings all feed into the supervisor's overall view.