Protecting consumers has priority
CASES of mis-selling by financial firms such as the recent payment protection insurance debacle will be fast-tracked by new regulators under plans unveiled by the Treasury yesterday.
Draft legislation to go through parliament next year will set up the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), to be in charge of protecting consumers and policing firms — and will have the power to deem some cases of widespread misconduct as causing “serious consumer detriment”.
In such cases it will be able to fast-track complaints or take pre-emptive action to prevent misconduct and “requiring firms to put in place a consumer redress scheme” such as expedited compensation pay-outs.
In addition, the FCA is to gain a wide range of powers to promote competition for consumers’ benefit, and will be able to kick off Office of Fair Trading investigations into a variety of potential ills, such as barriers to entry.
Overall, the FCA will have “a lower risk threshold for potential consumer detriment”, a spokesperson from the Treasury said yesterday.