The U.K.’s Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR) will soon be applied to the rest of the financial services industry. The SMCR introduces a heightened level of personal responsibility for senior managers, shifts the duty to certify control function staff onto regulated firms and establishes rules of conduct for all financial staff. A recent ACA Compliance Group (ACA) webinar, featuring Martin Lovick, ACA senior principal consultant; Josie Cooper, ACA consultant; and Dimitrios Sachinidis, ACA senior compliance analyst, provided a roadmap for navigating the transition to the SMCR. This article, the first in a two-part series, summarizes the panelists’ insights on the genesis and extension of the SMCR, as well as the responsibilities of senior managers. The second article will explore the firm-based certification of certain other personnel, the imposition of rules of conduct on virtually all firm employees and steps fund managers can take toward compliance. See “FCA Issues Guidance on Expansion of Senior Managers Regime to Fund Managers and Others” (Feb. 1, 2018); and “Hedge Fund Legal Personnel May Fall Under U.K. Senior Managers Regime” (Feb. 4, 2016).