The Financial Conduct Authority launched a consultation designed to provide a guiding set of principles around the strategic choices it makes.
Dubbed the “mission,” the consultation is a flagship piece of work for the FCA, said Andrew Bailey, CEO of the FCA, in a video on the U.K.’s financial watchdog’s website. Mr. Bailey became CEO in July.
“(It) is seeking to provide us with a clearly articulated framework for what we do — taking our very big-picture statutory objectives and saying, how do we interpret these?”
Mr. Bailey said it is not intended to change what the FCA does, but rather to “distill what we do, and say let’s start to turn that into a framework for conduct regulation.”
The watchdog said its purview is large and complex, and that it has finite resources with which to work. Parliament sets objectives for the FCA, principal of which is to ensure the markets it oversees function well.
The FCA will consult on themes including the protection of consumers, when the FCA should intervene, and how the FCA can be clearer on what it is doing and why. It will also look at the scope of regulation, explaining the responsibility the FCA has for taking action and circumstances in which it may intervene in unregulated activities, the interaction between regulation and public policy, and competition, supervision and enforcement.
The FCA wants the financial industry to respond to its work and will be seeking engagement with the financial industry. Comments may be submitted until Jan. 26, via the FCA’s website.
