Treasury Committee writes to FCA on enforcement proposals

The Treasury Sub-Committee on Financial Services Regulations has written to the FCA on its enforcement proposals prior to the dissolution of the Committee before the general election.

The letter outlines the Committee’s response to their evidence session with Nikhil Rathi, Chief Executive of the FCA, and Ashley Alder, chair of the FCA, on 8 May.

It sets out the issues Committee members raised, and that may be taken forward by a future Committee post-election, including:

• the proposals differ from those of international competitors such as the US, France or Switzerland;
• if the threshold for the public interest framework is too low, investor confidence in UK financial services markets is at risk of being lost;
• the current time it takes for the FCA to investigate is too long and it must prioritise speeding this process up;
• the FCA could have focussed on other priorities to try and increase the UK’s international competitiveness; and
• the power to publicise investigations is already held by the FCA and can be used in exceptional circumstances when requested by Parliament.