FCA to rip 140 pages out of handbook in deregulation drive
The UK’s financial watchdog has vowed to rip scores of pages from its handbook as it slashes red tape in a drive to boost growth.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said as many as 140 pages will be removed from the lengthy handbook, as it opened a consultation on scrapping data collection requirements.
The move is the latest by the watchdog to slimline operations and reduce the regulatory burden on businesses, amid growing pressure to take action from Downing Street.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves wrote to the City regulator in November asking it to encourage more risk-taking and prove it supported economic growth.
The FCA said around 16,000 firms would benefit from proposed rule changes in data gathering, which include the scrapping of some update requests on stock lending and complaints.
It also said it would stop taking some data from firms who give advice on mortgages and other investment products with immediate effect.
The FCA said it wished to collect data at the “lowest possible cost to industry” but a cost benefit analysis said that only around £1.3m would be saved annually from two of the changes proposed.
The regulator is expected to remove several other rules in the coming months as part of attempts to overhaul its handbook, which is around 10,000 pages long.
Gunning for growth
Reeves said last month that the FCA had responded positively to her demands on regulators to ease pressures on businesses.
Nikil Rathi, who has been tasked with leading the FCA’s drive to reduce bureaucracy, won the approval of Reeves as he was reappointed chief executive of the regulator.
Regulatory bosses are under intense pressure to make changes after the government replaced the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) former chief executive Marcus Bokkerink with Doug Gurr, who worked as Amazon UK’s country manager.
The City regulator dropped plans to ‘name and shame’ firms it was investigating and said in January it was exploring ways to ease strict consumer duty rules which came into force in 2023.
Other bodies in the financial sector are also finding ways to support Reeves’ growth ambitions.
The Financial Policy Committee at the Bank of England said in April that it was looking for ways to simplify regulatory interventions and improve productivity, The roll-out of artificial intelligence across the financial system was seen as having the “potential to bring productivity gains”.
The government itself has set out to scrap quangos including NHS England as well the Payment Systems Regulator, which will now be rolled into the operations of the FCA.
All eyes will be on a crucial spending review scheduled for June when the government is expected to announce further spending cuts and possibly introduce vast regulatory changes.