John Griffith-Jones has reflected on FCA’s first 5 years of operation, since it took over from the FSA. He outlined:
- highlights – specifying FCA’s engagement with pension exit charges, general insurance renewals, interest-only mortgage work, FX and LIBOR issues and reform, MiFID 2 implementation, the Innovation Hub, market abuse enforcement, fixing PPI, the asset management market study and the SMR. He also looked at the new things FCA has had to regulate, namely consumer credit, a new competition objective, creation of the PSR, and what FCA will pick up in future, such as credit rating agencies, claims management companies and the work of OPBAS;
- successes – he considers FCA has worked hard to improve prevention of detriment while ensuring appropriate redress where harm has been done. He also said FCA has been very influential in transforming attitudes within firms;
- the future – he sees 4 main challenges for the next 5 years: Brexit, policing the regulatory perimeter, technological advances and the relationship between the legal and the regulatory process (most topically, what do to about cryptocurrencies). Finally, he highlighted the importance now and for the future of the relationship between the regulator and the regulated.