Watchdog powers grow
REGULATORS are to get significant new powers when the Financial Services Authority is split into three next year, it was reported yesterday.
The new agencies, including the powerful consumer protection body to be led by Martin Wheatley, head of Hong Kong’s regulator, will be able to tell a bank or broker’s investors of planned action against the institution before the party is notified.
The move means investors would know of enforcement actions before the institution was able to appeal, the Treasury’s financial secretary Mark Hoban said in an interview with the Financial Times. The Consumer Protection and Markets authority – to be renamed the Financial Conduct Authority – will be able to ban financial products from the market for up to a year. The government will today name the four external members of a new Bank of England committee to supervise the financial sector.