Treasury chair warns over FSA reform

The new chair of the Treasury select committee has warned that the government’s plans to scrap the FSA run the risk of creating policy ‘on the hoof’.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Tory MP Andrew Tyrie said the proposed changes to regulation do not make clear who would be responsible for making decisions in another financial crisis.

“Only when we find out exactly how it is structured and how it operates can we as a committee assess whether it strikes the right balance,” said the MP for Chichester, who was elected to the chairmanship of the Treasury committee last month.

‘It is clear that the architecture of financial regulation doesn’t seem to be settled, there seems to be an awful lot of questions knocking around resulting from the decision to end the FSA,’ added Tyrie, who is a former economic advisor to Nigel Lawson and John Major.

‘It may turn out to be legitimate to make the point that some of this policy appears to be being made on the hoof.’

He said the committee would be taking a close interest in the FSA overhaul.