Chris Warren-Smith & Charles Golsong report on the proposed break-up of the FSA
The start of another year leads to musings about proposed developments at UK, European and global levels that may affect the financial sector in the next 12 months.
The government proposes to dismantle the Financial Services Authority (FSA), and split its responsibilities between three new regulatory bodies: the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), originally proposed to be named the Consumer Protection and Markets Authority (CPMA), which will regulate day-to-day market and business conduct and activities, a Prudential Regulatory Authority, to be a subsidiary of the Bank of England for micro-prudential regulation, and the Financial Policy Committee (to be part of the Bank of England), responsible for macro-prudential regulation.
The government proposes to establish a single Economic Crime Agency (ECA) to prosecute financial crime, a task currently handled by multiple agencies including the Serious Fraud Office, the Office of Fair Trading and the Serious Organised Crime Agency. The Home Office has stated that it will be the lead department in
