Welcome to GRIP, Global Relay’s new digital information service on practical compliance and regulatory change.

Please enjoy this free trial of our subscription content service, for a limited time only.

  

Rules

Firms say FCA needs to act more quickly to build trust and confidence

Photo: Montage/FCA

Martin Cloake

 Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window/tab) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window/tab) Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window/tab) Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window/tab)

Regulator’s annual trawl for feedback reveals some room for improvement.

There’s been a notable drop in trust and confidence in the FCA among fixed portfolio firms, and a significant number of fixed and flexible portfolio firms feel the pace of investigations carried out by the regulator is too slow.

The findings come from the FCA’s latest Practitioner Panel Report, which was carried out between February and April 2023. Comments were received from 4,881 firms.

Twice as many fixed firms said their trust in the FCA had decreased over the last year – with 22% delivering that verdict compared with 11% in 2021. And the proportion of fixed firms saying that they now trusted the FCA more than they did 12 months ago was largely unchanged since 2021.

Fixed firms are also less satisfied with the FCA’s performance than they were in 2021. The mean satisfaction score fell to 6.9 from 7.3. although it should be pointed out that 6.9 is comparable with pre-pandemic levels. The number of fixed firms scoring their satisfaction levels at between 7 and 10 fell to 65%, from 81% in 2021.

Pace of FCA investigations

The pace at which FCA investigations are carried out is too slow in the view of a quarter of fixed firms (27%) and one in 10 flexible firms (10%).

But, with almost half of fixed firms and around two-thirds of flexible firms unable to give a view on the pace of investigations, it seems that there is a lack of familiarity with the process. While communication around details obviously needs to improve, there is a high level of awareness of the FCA taking enforcement action, with 99% of fixed firms and 73% of flexible firms saying they were aware of actions against firms or individuals.

The report identifies four areas of priority in “driving levels of satisfaction with the FCA and perceptions of its effectiveness”. They are:

  • action to ensure costs are proportionate to benefits;
  • taking a more forward-looking approach to regulation;
  • building more transparency into regulation;
  • adapting regulation to respond more efficiently to innovation.

The full findings of the report, together with the regulator’s conclusions, are available on the FCA’s website.

, ,

You may also like