Costly replacement for FSA could have the same old faults
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Mark Hoban, financial secretary to the Treasury, last week launched the government’s consultation process on the implementation of reforms to financial regulation, in particular the scrapping of the Financial Services Authority.
Call me cynical, but is this going to be an exercise in window-dressing in the style of former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown or their self-styled third man Peter Mandelson?
Will this lead to the same old people being employed with the same old gold-plated pension schemes in the same sort of roles with the same unbridled power?
And will they act in the same old way - as prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner?
Well, there is one difference. It will cost £50m to change the FSA into the Consumer Protection and Markets Authority so there will be even more cost for brokers.
But maybe we’ll see a change for the better in the long run, with the regulator listening to the advice it gets instead of ignoring it as in the past.
We shall see.
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Readers' comments (1)
Anonymous | 5 Aug 2010 12:20 pm
No gold-plated pensions at the FSA fella, they went back in 1997.
As regards "the same old people", didn't the Governor of the BoE say they he wanted a cadre of experieneced regulators rather than individuals who did a few years at the FSA before going back into the private sector? Not sure how you get this cadre without the "same old people" doing the job in the new set up!
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