CPMA will be a 'strong champion for consumers'

24 June 2010 | By Paul McMillan

The new Consumer Protection and Markets Authority will take on responsibility for the Financial Ombudsman Service and e Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

In Parliament last week, Treasury Financial Secretary Mark Hoban said the CPMA would take on the FSA’s responsibilities for the FOS and FSCS and oversee the newly created Consumer Financial Education Body.

Hoban said the CPMA will regulate the conduct of all retail and wholesale firms, including those under the Prudential Regulation Authority.

He told MPs the CPMA would “take a proactive role as a strong consumer champion”. He said: “It will have a strong mandate for ensuring that financial services and markets are transparent in their operation, so that everyone - from someone buying car insurance to a trader at a large bank - can have confidence in their dealings, and know that they will get the protection they need if something goes wrong.

“The CPMA will regulate the conduct of every financial service business, whether they trade on the high street or trade in high finance. We need to ensure that this body has a tougher, more proactive approach to regulating conduct and its primary objective will be promoting confidence in financial services and markets.”

FSA chairman Lord Turner says: “On retail customer protection, the FSA has recognised the need for a shift in our past approach, moving to the more interventionist approach which we set out in our recently published retail conduct strategy.

“The new Consumer Protection and Markets Authority will have a strong focus on this challenge while also maintaining strong focus on conduct issues in wholesale products.”

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