Financial Conduct Authority considers future Bill
Summary
‘Financial Conduct Authority’ (HC 1574) announces a number of recommendations for Government consideration ahead of the drafting and publication of the Financial Services Bill due in early 2012.
A new regulatory framework proposes that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are assigned with protecting and enhancing confidence in financial services and markets, as well as protecting consumers by promoting competition.
Among the recommendations put forward by the FCA are:
- that the Government should legislate to give the FCA a primary objective to promote effective competition for the benefit of the consumer (in line with the thinking of the Independent Commission on Banking and the Office of Fair Trading);
- the Government must put competition at the heart of the new regulatory framework;
- the FCA should develop far more reliable estimates, in collaboration with the industry, of its own cost effectiveness;
- the Government differentiates between retail and wholesale consumers;
- that both the FCA and the financial services industry make better efforts to communicate with each other; and
- that the current legislative proposals be revised to ensure that the FCA is properly accountable to Parliament and that tools are available to enable the required level of explanation from the regulator.
Consumer Credit legislation is seen as crucial to millions of people. The Government must act quickly if changes to existing regulations are to be included in the forthcoming Financial Service Bill.
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