Emily Benson, Director at financial advisory firm Kinetic Partners, on the Treasury Select Committee’s report on the role of the new Financial Conduct Authority…

Today’s report on the role of the new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) indicates the intention to build something genuinely new and better, and the determination of Government to rectify the regulatory mistakes of the past, particularly those which have hurt the consumer, such as the mis-selling of payment protection insurance and endowment mortgages.

There is a clear recognition that the culture of the new FCA must evolve from current arrangements, becoming a more efficient and responsive body that is in turn subject to tougher scrutiny.
 
The new regulator will likely be highly alert to the risk of a repeat threat to consumers’ interests and will no doubt be prepared to act quickly and with all the powers available should such a situation arise. Firms would be well advised to revisit the lessons learned around PPI and endowment mortgages to avoid problematic brushes with enforcement at the FCA.