Speaking at a Thomson Reuters Newsmaker event in London to launch the FSA’s paper Journey to the FCA paper, Martin Wheatley said the new regulator will take more decisive action to protect consumers.
Wheatley, FSA managing director and chief executive officer designate of the FCA, said the FCA will aim to learn the lessons of previous issues such as PPI mis-selling by taking earlier and more decisive action to deal with problems early.
It will devote more resources to analysing possible risks and looking at cross-industry issues to assess the cause of problems.
This approach will be backed by new powers that will allow the FCA to ban products and promotions if it believes that they create risks to consumers. The FCA will also promote effective competition in the interests of consumers.
Wheatley said: "We see it as the role of the regulator to not only make the relevant markets work well but also to help firms get back to putting their customers at the heart of how they do business.”
The FCA will also continue with much of the FSA’s existing work – for example preventing unauthorised firms from trying to rip-off consumers and taking enforcement action for cases of wrongdoing.
Wheatley added: "Making regulation work better for us is also about allowing firms room to try new ideas and develop their business.
“Promoting competition will play an important part in this. We are not here to stand in the way of progress that will be of benefit to consumers. Our goals as the FCA are clear: we will work for an industry that is better at serving the needs of its customers.”
The FSA is asking for comments about the plans for the FCA and the consultation period runs until 14 December 2012.
