My experience as an adviser has made me much more effective in my role as a compliance consultant. Similarly, I would recommend that the FCA actively tries to recruit from financial services professionals in order to be seen and experienced to be more in touch with the people it is trying to regulate. I feel that would lead to better regulation in the future.
It all comes back to the extraordinary range of the remit of the FCA. It really needs to ensure that it is using as much industry expertise as possible. All too often, when I call the FCA, I am referred back to the unreadable FCA handbook, rather than getting the guidance I require.
The FCA does not want to be prescriptive. I believe that a prescriptive regulator is exactly what most advisers would appreciate. My livelihood relies on the paranoia of advisers and it would seem that they have many reasons to be paranoid, when it comes to regulation or quite regularly, retrospective regulation.
The live and local events are a great opportunity to build the bridges between the FCA and its customers. Unfortunately, the firms that could most do with attending are the ones that are least likely to do so. I guess that the FCA could do with a more pro-active and effective public relations machine.
Tony Catt is a compliance consultant
