A top dog at one of the UK’s most powerful authorities has opened up for the public to share its insights into how regulations should look like in the future.
Christopher Woolard, executive director of strategy and competition at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), made the announcement at an event held by market research company Cicero.
He began by recognizing that the industry has changed thanks to technological advances that has transformed much of the economy into a “truly digital industry” that is still dealing with stricter regulations that were implemented after the financial meltdown of 2008.
It is in this context that Woolard stated that the FCA is looking to change how the financial sector is regulated, or at least how one should approach that change.
“The first thing we have to acknowledge is that we live in a very different world to the one in which our rules were framed,” he said. “We have to ask ourselves if our regulatory model is still the right one and if it’s ready to respond to the changes we see coming down the track. We can’t answer these questions alone. It’s vital that our approach has the confidence and consent of our stakeholders and the wider public.”
With this in mind, Woolard announced that the FCA will begin to engage in a public conversation with stakeholders in the industry over the upcoming months.
“We will be issuing an open invitation for your thoughts and ideas, as well as setting out some of our own,” Woolard continued. “And we’ll publish detailed papers, including an analysis of future market dynamics, a discussion paper about our principles, and a consultation paper on the duty of care.”
While he acknowledged the FCA did not “know exactly where this conversation will take” the authority, Woolard said it was already clear “we are moving from a narrower compliance with the rules, to a focus on delivering the outcomes we want for the users of financial services.”
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