Concerns raised over FCA reform |
Concerns have been voiced over Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) plans to reform its decision-making process to enable it to make faster and more effective decisions. The City watchdog is consulting on moving some decision-making from its Regulatory Decisions Committee (RDC) to its authorisations, supervision and enforcement divisions, shifting responsibility from board level to senior staff members. This, it says, will allow it to stop and prevent harm more swiftly. Emily Shepperd, executive director of authorisations at the FCA, said: “The proposed changes will allow us to be more efficient by making best use of the breadth of expertise across the FCA and by putting certain decisions back to the subject matter experts.” However, Imogen Makin, head of financial services regulatory investigations at DWF, said that while the firm and those it represents would welcome faster and more effective action, the plans “could be a recipe for the exercise of more arbitrary – and potentially excessive - power in relation to authorised firms struggling with compliance issues and individuals who merely made mistakes.” Pippa Tasker, a financial services partner with CMS, said the removal of the objective decision-maker from the critical authorisation and permissions processes “could create a dangerous cocktail for firms.”