City to face a watchdog with teeth - Spend & Save , Money - The Independent
Did the 'regulator' fail or was it the 'regulators'? Largely the same people have been regulating since 1985 under various names, SIB (now FSA), LAUTRO, FIMBRA, IMRO (Keydata), SFA, GISC, PIA, the list appears endless yet one element remains constant.... the regulators, the people, the managers, the supervisors.
They fail to spot 'trends' the rest of us have been harping on about for decades, this is what the FSA said when I asked why they don't listen to people who have successfully predicted many of the catastrophes in financial services:
"As you know, we do try very hard to spot trends and other developments which might result in what we call 'risks to our objectives' - of which the most the most obvious example is something which could lead to detriment to consumers. But we don't always get it right, so learning the lessons from the past is important too.
In doing this, it's very important to have many different sources of information, intelligence, and diverse views on what might happen. But this also means that not everyone agrees on the significance of emerging issues and/or what we should do about them - needless to say, this makes our job more difficut.
I can assure you that we are always trying to improve our ability to spot problems and constantly challenging ourselves as to whether we can intervene more effectively. The new conduct strategy which Hector spoke about recently is an example of this."
I'm sorry but trying and failing are not what we want, we don't need peopole to toss a coin when deciding which way to look when the banks fall over, this isn't a flutter on the Grand National, this is the financial wellbeing of all of us and after two and a half dacdes of the FSA (nee SIB) I have no confidence whatsoever in the ability of politicians to 'cobble' together yet another regulator and that this time it will WORK.
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