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21 Feb 2011

City lawyer wary of new Treasury plans for FCA

Following the publication of the consultation paper detailing plans for City regulation after the FSA is disbanded, the Treasury proposes to give the new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) the ability to comment publicly on enforcement actions earlier than before.

City law firm Lawrence Graham's Head of Regulation, Richard Everett, says of the proposals:

"I'm not convinced that the proposed publishing of warning notices by the FCA will result in the transparency the Government is looking for. Firms are simply going to seek to settle with the FCA at an earlier stage so they don't have to have their dirty linen washed in public.

"Also bear in mind that during the debate around the 2000 Act, issues were raised about firms' ability to challenge regulatory findings before the harm is done by making it all public. If the objective is to expose alleged wrongdoing at an early stage, then the approach would be for the notice procedure to be scrapped and the Fsa to argue everything before a tribunal."

Richard Everett
Partner, Corporate
Richard Everett
.