New regulator will take different approach, says its boss

Thursday 26th January 2012

The future boss of the new Financial Conduct Authority has told banks that there will have to be a cultural change to avoid the failings that the FSA has had to deal with over the last few years.

And he hinted that the customer may not always be right and will have to take responsibility for their own decision.

Martin Wheatley, managing director of the FSA and CEO designate of the FCA, told a British Bankers’ Association audience that it was time for a new approach by both banks and the regulator.

He said: “I want the culture in your firms, from your product governance to your sales, to be aligned with the best interests of your customers. I don’t want to see any of the failings the FSA has had to deal with in the last few years.”

He continued: “But I want to emphasise this is not all about regulated firms. Consumers of course have a role to play, and we need a cultural change at the regulator as well.
 
“The FCA will need to ask tougher questions, and they need to be the right ones, if we are really going to discover what lies at the heart of your firms’ successes and failures. The FCA then needs to make better, bolder, faster decisions.”

He told the audience that “we all have to walk in the footsteps of your customers” to understand their perspective and to be able to deliver the new approach.

Wheatley said the FCA will aim to strike a balance, recognising that firms, the regulator and the consumer all have a responsibility.

He said: “If a consumer makes a fully informed decision that subsequently goes wrong, then that is down to them. But we have to be realistic. And what this is about is balance.

“We have to realise that consumers aren’t always in a position to take responsibility, because of their lack of financial knowledge and because we have to take a reasonable approach to what a normal person can understand about complicated products and risks.

“And so I believe that balance comes from all parties – consumers, providers, intermediaries – taking responsibility for their part in each transaction. So our approach will reflect that and be flexible and proportionate. 

“But what the FCA won’t be doing is lying back, then letting the market get on with it.”