In a speech delivered to City Week 2021 on 22nd June, Nikhil Rathi has spoken about building a future-ready regulatory environment in the UK
The key take-aways from the speech were:
- Leaving the EU allows the FCA to tailor its rules to better suit the UK markets, while ensuring appropriate safeguards and upholding high standards.
- The FCA will rigorously review all firms seeking UK authorisation.
- Partnerships have never been so important, which is why the FCA is working to deepen existing partnerships and forge new ones.
- The Regulator is proposing to extend its climate-related financial disclosure requirements to issuers of standard listed equity shares.
- The FCA want views on selected ESG topics in UK capital markets and, separately, is proposing new disclosure requirements for asset managers, life insurers and FCA-regulated pension providers.
To respond effectively, the FCA is constantly learning and adapting. It has to be agile and confident to build and operate an effective regulatory regime for the firms and consumers of the future. The FCA is seeking to do this in three ways:
- Meeting the needs of UK markets;
- Setting the bar high at the gateway for entry to regulation and intervening assertively to deal with misconduct; and
- Playing its part in international regulatory discussions.
The FCA believes that all of this will support competitive markets and, in turn, attract firms that innovate in the interest of consumers.
The flexibility gained since Brexit will allow the FCA to move nimbly and tailor rules to suit UK markets, while maintaining high, internationally consistent standards at least equivalent to the EU.
Referring to the regulatory gateway, the message was clearly that the bar will be set high. Although the UK “is open for business”, it is not open to firms who do not meet the FCA’s regulatory expectations. The FCA will not be afraid to act quickly to remove a firm’s permissions if it sees that firms are not using their authorisation or indeed misusing it.
For further details on this story, or any compliance-related topic, contact our expert team on 01925 767888, or email helpline@ukgigroup.com.