Financial Services Bill gives FSA too much power, warns Ignacity
Share
Regulatory consultancy Ignacity has slammed the Financial Services Bill for giving too much power to the FSA and has urged the House of Lords to carefully scrutinise it at the second reading next Monday.
In a briefing to the Lords, Ignacity says giving the FSA a statutory objective of financial stability would allow the regulator to overrule the Chancellor and Treasury.
It adds that the Bill gives the FSA the power to determine the strategy, action plan and budget of a new financial education body and to levy firms to pay for it.
Ignacity founder Joe Egerton says: “This Bill is a constitutional outrage. It gives the FSA power to define and expand its powers over large areas that should be under the control of elected ministers and to do so without any reference to Parliament.
“It will not stop a single piece of bad behaviour, greedy bankers will simply move from London. So unfortunately will a great many decent individuals and firms that do much good to the economy but will understandably choose to live under the rule of law rather than the rule of the FSA.”
If you enjoyed this article, sign up here to receive daily email updates from Money Marketing and Follow @_moneymarketing
Readers' comments (3)
Evan Owen | 2 Feb 2010 1:50 pm
Well said Joe, most of it at any rate.
However, the need to move quickly when firms are causing serious damage is preferable to the almost six years it took them to shut one firm down, the fallout from that episode is still being felt by the rest of the industry.
In any event there is no need for yet another Bill, the Henry VIII clause would do the trick, just one stroke of one of Her majesty's ministers is all it takes.
Ignacity eh, I wondered what you were doing nowadays...
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
SIMON MANSELL | 2 Feb 2010 3:44 pm
We have a Constitution, Independent Judiciary and Parliament because without it you have an elected dictatorship. Parliament is said to be the worst system until you consider the alternative so don’t throw away what has been fought for over many years. It is better to let ten guilty men (or businesses) walk free than to risk the rights of one innocent man. If you hand these rights over to an unelected quango like the FSA you will never get them back!
Quote:
Sir Thomas More: This country is planted thick with laws from coast to coast. Man's laws, not God's. And if you cut them down - and you're just the man to do it - do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?
William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
A Man for All Seasons (1966)
______________________________________
Simon Mansell
Temple Bar IFA Ltd
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
David Cowell | 2 Feb 2010 10:22 pm
All that is needed for infamy to rule is that good men do nothing.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment