The future shape of financial regulation

The Financial Services Act 2012

The Consumer Panel's work on the future of financial services regulation continues now that the Financial Services Act 2012 is in force. 

During the passage of the Bill the Panel called for changes to the legislation to increase the rights of consumers and to strengthen consumer protection. 

You can read our briefing paper for legislators working on the Bill under legislative briefings.

The key changes the Consumer Panel sought were:

• a duty of care for those providing financial services;
• a requirement for the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to take into account the views of consumers by responding to representations from the Consumer Panel;
• a requirement of access for all consumers to financial services;
• an increase in the transparency of financial services regulation by empowering the PRA and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to disclose information about the financial services firms they regulate;
• effective competition powers for the FCA to allow it to deliver its statutory objectives; and
• a requirement for the regulators to undertake full and robust cost benefit analysis when developing new rules.

2011 White Paper and Draft Bill on the future of financial services regulation

The Panel gave evidence to the Joint Committee scrutinising the draft financial services Bill on the 2nd November 2011. You can read the record of the evidence session. The Panel also submitted evidence to the Committee [PDF].

In June 2011 the Treasury published its White Paper and Draft Bill CM8083 on the future of financial services regulation. You can read the Panel’s response [PDF].

Previously, the Panel submitted its response to the Treasury's second consultation in April 2011 [PDF].

2010 Treasury Consultation on the future of Financial Services Regulation

The Consumer Panel responded to the Treasury Consultation CM7874 on the future of Financial Services Regulation in the UK.

Adam Phillips also appeared before the Treasury Committee of the House of Commons to give evidence about the changes the Panel would like to see. The Consumer Panel has called for the new Consumer Protection and Markets Authority (CPMA) to be given stronger powers to deliver better outcomes for consumers. The Panel also asked to have a greater role in advising the new CPMA, Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) and the Government where their work had implications for consumers.

You can read our response to HM Treasury [PDF] and you can find the Hansard report of the evidence session at the Treasury Committee here.

Turner Report

In 2009 we publicly responded to proposals by FSA Chairman Adair Turner in the Turner Report, published in March 2009. The report looked at how to make the financial system more stable in future and we published a response in June 2009.

Consumer responsibility

We strongly criticised the FSA's stance on consumer responsibility as set out in its Discussion Paper (DP08/5) on the subject.  

We continue to monitor developments to ensure unrealistic responsibilities are not put onto consumers as part of general changes in financial regulation. You can read our latest position paper here. 

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