Any regulator - combined or separate - must be ’accountable, agile [and] responsive’, says compliance expert
Secretary of state for foreign, commonwealth and development affairs Liz Truss, who is running to be Conservative party leader, plans to merge three financial regulators – the FCA, Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) - into one body if she successfully becomes prime minister.
As reported by FTAdviser, Truss intends to initiate a review of all three regulators’ respective roles and responsibilities if she is voted to be prime minister in the next election, scheduled for September 2022.
The FCA regulates around 50,000 financial services firms in the UK, including general insurance intermediaries.
The PRA, meanwhile, sets standards or policies and monitors compliance against these - it regulates approximately 1,500 financial institutions, including insurance companies and banks.
The PSR aims to promote competition and innovation, so that payments systems are operated in the interests of the people and businesses that use them.
Branko Bjelobaba, principal at compliance consultancy Branko, told Insurance Times: ”Truss is suggesting that if she becomes prime minister, the FCA and PRA may be joined together to regulate prudential and conduct matters as one regulator.
”I have no idea if firms would receive a better form of regulation if this were to happen.”
Accountable
He continued: ”[From] a sole FCA perspective, all I see is a sluggish and expensive regulator that is slow to perform basic procedural matters and has left customers - especially in the investment sector - penniless as they have invested their pension pots in unregulated schemes.
”If the FCA and PRA can do a better job together then that’s great, but [it must] be accountable, agile, responsive and regulate – not that hard is it?
”Also employ the right people – people that like to help and explain things rather than confuse or refuse to cooperate.”
Read: Boris Johnson resigns as Tory leader
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Boris Johnson resigned as Tory party leader on 7 July 2022 - he additionally stepped down as prime minster until a successor is elected. Former chancellor of the exchequer, Rishi Sunak, is also in the running for Tory party leader.
Insurance Times contacted the FCA and the PRA, but both declined to comment.
Insurance Times has also contacted Truss for further comment.
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