In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph Letwin said the Tories would exercise a change of regime within the FSA. He believed the current legal structure was causing the FSA to over-regulate.
Letwin’s views were reiterated in a recent speech in which he said: “Labour are caught in a culture of big government – a culture of regulation, initiatives, inspectors, bureaucrats and administrators.”
John Goodfellow, chief executive at the Skipton Building Society, commented: “Without a detailed proposal from the Conservative Party it is difficult to say if its plans for a ‘scaled back’ regulator would offer a better solution. However, as an organisation which is seeing first hand the ever-increasing cost of regulation, regardless of politics, the principle of reviewing the regulatory environment is one we would welcome.”
Chris Cummings, director of mortgages at AMI, said: “It was an interesting speech by Letwin but would we have to see more of the substance to see if we would be in favour of his proposals.”
A spokesperson for the Treasury said: “The FSA framework has been a resounding success. A survey by the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation placed London well ahead of New York, Frankfurt and Paris in its regulatory environment.”
Robin Gordon-Walker, spokesman for the FSA, said: “It is not our practice to comment on party policy statements.”
