The All Party Parliamentary Group on Investment Fraud and Fairer Financial Services has published a report on the Call for Evidence about the FCA. It called for evidence because it wanted to hear more about the actions of the FCA which had led to public criticism of it following high-profile regulatory failures. The report says there is evidence that the FCA is an “opaque and unaccountable” organisation, which is slow to act and even slower to admit it has got things wrong and to change.
The report also cautions against any thought that the FCA’s Transformation Programme has resolved the list of problems – and says that further problems have arisen since it started the project.
The APPG wanted to understand better several issues, such as:
- whether there are underlying causes that might be common to various investigations into standalone events; and
- whether cultural changes promised had been delivered.
It summarises its hard-hitting conclusions as:
- the FCA is widely seen as incompetent
- its integrity is called into question
- its treatment of whistleblowers and their evidence is alarming
- it has defective organisational culture, driven from the top
- transparency and accountability is lacking and
- the Transformation Programme has not worked
The report says there is a high degree of consistency across the testimony it received.
It makes several recommendations for internal reform, but also says Government action is needed in several areas, including that the FCA’s immunity from civil liability to consumers should be removed and a statutory, civilly actionable Duty of Care be introduced. It also says change is needed to the way the FCA is funded.