LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - Britain's new rules for vettingand making senior bankers directly accountable for their actionswill take effect from March next year, UK financial servicesminister Andrea Leadsom said on Tuesday.
The new regime aims to make it easier for regulators topunish bankers for irresponsible decisions.
"In order to facilitate an orderly transition from theexisting approved persons regime, firms will be required tonotify the regulators by 8 February 2016 of the approved personswho are to be senior managers under the Senior Managers'Regime," Leadsom said in a statement.
The new rules will also be extended to UK branches offoreign banks on March 7, 2016 as well.
Regulators will shortly start a public consultation on howto extend the rules to foreign branches "in an appropriate andproportionate", Leadsom added.
The new criminal offence of causing a UK lender to fail willalso take effect in March next year, she said.
(Reporting by Huw Jones, editing by Matt Scuffham)