On 14th May 2019, the FCA published a podcast interview with Andrew Bailey on the FCA’s Business Plan and future of regulation.
Key topics can be summarised as follows:-
- Brexit – Brexit has affected the business plan due to its uncertainty and the FCA acknowledge that the plan will remain fluid as a result. There are many elements of the plan that are not, however, affected by Brexit and the FCA will be pressing ahead with those elements meantime;
- Consumer Protection – this remains at the heart of what the FCA do but three areas of focus are (1) finishing the high cost credit review, (2) concentrating on the loyalty penalty for consumers and (3) establishing whether a statutory duty of care is needed and if not, what can the FCA do to improve matters;
- Vulnerable Customers – the FCA will be consulting on their proposed vulnerability guidance over summer;
- PPI Deadline – giving the looming deadline (29/08/19), the FCA will be supervising to ensure that firms’ projects are closed down properly;
- Operational Resilience – it is acknowledged that firms need to future proof their technology so that they can continue to evolve to combat risks. A particular acknowledgement was made to cyber and data risks. Firms are encouraged to undertake rigorous testing of their systems to try to keep up with the risks which continually evolve and mutate;
- Culture & Governance – the FCA want to see firms having a culture of looking to do the right thing, not simply doing the minimum to comply with the rules and principles;
- Fairness & Sustainability – important to strike a balance here;
- Main Future Challenges – the last decade has been spent dealing with the legacy issues of the financial crisis but we’re nearing the end of that period. A dominant issue for the future is Brexit and how the UK will be regulated.