Following publication of its report following the call for evidence about the FCA, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Investment Fraud and Fairer Financial Services has published the cover note to accompany a further report, calling for a Royal Commission to be set up to carry out a comprehensive review of the regulatory architecture and clearly define what fairness in financial services should mean.
The APPG has called for fundamental structural reform to the UK system, and says the current Government’s “deregulate for growth” agenda risks making the problems even worse by further weakening already insufficient consumer protection.
The report uses six categories of evidence, each of which, says the APCC, points to the same conclusion – that UK financial conduct is in urgent need of fundamental structural reform. It blames having an arm’s length regulatory body with too much delegated power, insufficient democratic accountability and a culture that has become resistant to scrutiny. The lengthy report gives numerous examples of regulatory failings, and looks at inherent structural problems as well as how various scandals were allowed to happen.