Quantcast
Menu
Save, make, understand money

Investing

New-look regulator to be ‘more consumer-focused’

Joanna Faith
Written By:
Joanna Faith
Posted:
Updated:
25/03/2013

The new financial regulator has said it will use its powers to ensure consumers are protected from day one.

In its Business Plan for 2013/14, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which will replace the FSA on 1 April, outlined its priorities for its first year, which include: a renewed focus on consumers; tackling market abuse, ensuring a competitive financial services industry and addressing on-going misconduct.

The new-look regulator will also focus its efforts on longer term risks including firms not investing in innovative new products to meet the changing needs of society; withdrawal of sales forces; and too few new entrants in to the industry to allow competition to flourish.

The Business Plan also said that the FCA will be much more proactive, acting earlier and more decisively than the FSA and it will ensure that the focus is on issues that have wider, longer-term effects on consumers and market integrity.

The FCA will also continue the FSA’s work to use its enforcement powers to take action against firms and individuals who abuse the system to deter others from doing so.

Martin Wheatley, CEO designate of the FCA, said: “Firms need to ensure that they are putting the consumer and the integrity of markets at the heart of their business models and strategies. This includes making cultural changes which promote good conduct; establishing oversight around the design and innovation of products and services; and ensuring they are transparent in their dealings with consumers.

“Our first year as a new regulator will be an exciting and challenging time but one for which we are well prepared. We are introducing new approaches to the way we do much of our work, becoming much more proactive and consumer focused. A risk for all regulators is becoming bound to conventional thinking. That is why the new regulator will be much more transparent, so we can learn from our mistakes. There is no room for the poor behaviour of the past. We will take action early and decisively when we see evidence of poor practices.

“We cannot succeed wholly in isolation. To achieve our aims, we need the cooperation of the firms we regulate and the vigilance of their customers. A strong, successful financial services industry is essential for consumers across the UK, and for the economic health of the whole country.”

 


Share: