THE UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the principal financial services watchdog, has got itself in a spot of bother over proposals to “name and shame” financial services firms at the beginning, rather than the conclusion, of any investigation. It needs to rapidly revise its thinking, or risk damaging the City’s standing even further.
The regulator has succeeded in uniting opposition from the entire financial sector, with at least 16 industry bodies, including UK Finance and the City of London Corporation, asserting their view in a letter to Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt that the suggestion breaches principles of basic fairness.
If the FCA doesn’t backtrack, he needs to intervene – otherwise the UK will move out of step with other global regulators by holding UK firms to overly stringent oversight. It could leave efforts to revive the City in tatters.
