The Financial Conduct Authority has received a barrage of serious criticism in a parliamentary report.
The All-Part Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Investment Fraud and Fairer Financial Services has released a lengthy write-up of its findings on how industry participants view the FCA.
The report is based on extensive first-person testimony about stakeholders’ interactions with and perceptions of the FCA. It draws on input from 175 people.
Its ‘principal findings’ are that the FCA is widely seen as incompetent, its integrity is called into question, its treatment of whistleblowers and their evidence is alarming, it has a defective organisational culture, transparency and accountability is lacking, and the regulator’s ‘transformation programme’ has not worked.
See also: IHT receipts surge again as Budget discontent simmers
“There is a compelling consensus among respondents that the regulator too often fails to perform its functions to a reasonable standard,” the report states.
“This view is particularly strongly held in relation to its consumer protection remit, where criticisms abound that it is slow to spot and identify fraud and other misconduct, its responses to such wrongdoing are slow and inadequate, and it is insufficiently assertive in securing redress for consumers and penalising perpetrators.”
A significant number of respondents believe the FCA sometimes ‘acts in bad faith’ the report added.
In terms of the path forward, the APPG called for a new transformation of the regulator, given that its previous attempt has failed in the view of the APPG.
An FCA spokesperson said: “We sympathise with those who have lost out as a result of wrongdoing in financial services, however we strongly reject the characterisation of the organisation.
“We have learned from historic issues and transformed as an organisation so we can deliver for consumers, the market and the wider economy.”
See also: AJ Bell: Inheritance tax nil-band freeze will cost families an extra £234k
