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The FCA has confirmed several important new appointments this week. This suggests they are looking to take a stricter policy on enforcement in the future.
With every indication that financial fraud and crime is growing at an unprecedented and troubling rate, Watchdog has decided it’s time to act.
There are mountains to climb.
To bolster its law enforcement team, regulators are soon to retire current law enforcement director Mark Steward and replace him with two co-enforcement directors instead of one. increase.
By my simple math, this is doubling the law enforcement leadership team, and executive officers aren’t cheap, so at least it’s a significant investment.
The two replacements for the aptly named Mr Steward are the aptly named Steve Smart and Therese Chambers.
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Mr. Smart has a long career with the National Criminal Service, and Mr. Chambers is an FCA veteran with more than 20 years of experience in surveillance. they are not new.
The FCA has also pledged to strengthen its enforcement team more generally ahead of the imminent launch of the highly touted new consumer tax rules.
So far so good and wish the new executives the best of luck – they’ll need it.
As a matter of fact, we are waiting to see how the consumer tax will be implemented, but nothing has fundamentally changed. Even the long-awaited online safety bill promises to help tackle online fraud. , remains stuck in the House of Commons after a year of debate.
Without bills or other new legislation, the basic fact remains that in the UK we regulate advisors, not products. Close the gate later.
There is virtually no pre-screening of products in the UK and that is not likely to change. increase. I’m not sure I agree with that, but at least it would be a massive undertaking.
In fact, pre-screening products is probably the only way to significantly reduce financial crime.
If all products were assessed by the FCA for “financial security” in the same way that cars are checked for road safety before being released to the public, it would be true to intervene early enough to make a difference. There will be an active regulatory authority in
This contrasts with current arrangements, where criminals have already whipped out dangerous products and in most cases have taken the loot before regulators have even figured out what happened. Each month, I read the details of dozens of law enforcement cases, and it is overwhelmingly clear that identifying financial criminals takes an enormous amount of time, often years.
Without addressing this important issue, the FCA could quadruple the size of its enforcement team, but that still only scratches the surface of the problem. A fundamental reform of law enforcement is needed to make a real difference, and that means earlier intervention.
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Kevin O’Donnell is the editor of Financial Planning Today and has worked as a journalist and editor for over 30 years.
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