Stephen Gay: FCA will be more accountable than FSA
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Aifa director general Stephen Gay has suggested the Financial Conduct Authority will be more accountable than the FSA.
Speaking at the PIMS conference aboard the Aurora last week, Gay said the move to a new regulatory structure presents the opportunity to hold the FCA to account where the FSA has not been previously held accountable.
He said: “Accountability is an issue I have spoken to the FSA about on a one-to-one basis at the highest level and I think the regulator recognises there are issues there.
“The FSA is not unwelcoming of the fact that the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority will be accountable to the National Audit Office.
“What I think we are going to see is a door that is at least semi-ajar to bring pressure through the Parliamentary process and hold the regulator to account.”
Gay believes the FCA will have a greater requirement to report its regulatory failings and listen to bodies such as the Financial Services Practitioner Panel.
He added: “I cannot control the FSA but I can make sure it continually hears the voice of the IFA community and some of the time we succeed in getting it to do what we want it to.”
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Readers' comments (5)
Exasperated Me | 26 May 2011 10:06 am
Has he read the FSMA 2000?
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Sam Caunt | 26 May 2011 10:08 am
Which is no consolation when the FSA has got the RDR so badly wrong especially in the detail. I am on my hobby horse again, but Adviser Charging does not work in practice......
When will the FSA recognise it?
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Julian Stevens | 26 May 2011 10:22 am
Questions:-
1. What about the fact that the government has already announced that the FCA will be accountable only "to its own board"?
2. What, if any, powers does the FSPP have? Does it/will it have any powers of veto over anything the FCA does or proposes doing?
3. Exactly what things has AIFA succeeded in getting the FSA to do? I am aware that it succeeded in getting the FSA to revise the proportion of the total regulatory levy allocated to the IFA sector and that it persuaded the FSA to revise its RDR qualification requirement from Level 6 to Level 4 (though Hector Sants told the TSC only that the FSA "currently has no plans" to stipulate Level 6 at some future date), but I cannot readily think of anything else. If any other concessions have been obtained, then it would be useful for AIFA to let us know what they are, if only so we may know what we're paying for in terms of actual results.
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Alan Lakey | 26 May 2011 11:50 am
The FSA and its successor bodies must be accountable to Parliament.
The democratic process requires this otherwise we will suffer another 11 years of crazy rule-making, another 11 years of selective deafness and another 11 years of industry destruction.
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Exasperated Me | 26 May 2011 11:57 am
Mr Gay will hopefully learn, sooner rather than later, that the regulators will make reassuring noises while he is in the room and then carry on as before after he has gone.
"Just smile and wave boys, just smile and wave".
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