The regulator needs to be open-minded and open to change in order to drive growth, according to the Financial Conduct Authority
Speaking at the City UK International Conference yesterday (April 18), Sarah Pritchard, executive director at the FCA said the regulator wants to strike a balance between encouraging competition and innovation and advancing on other operational objectives.
She said: “As we have set about delivering on our new competitiveness mandate, I have heard from many firms how good it is to be able to engage constructively with us regulators rather than only when things go wrong.
“You’ve told me how good it is to be able to engage directly on regulatory reform – to speak to regulators openly and before rules are formulated, not afterwards in the courtroom.”
Pritchard said while other regulators have objectives around growth and international competitiveness, the FCA is recognised as “providing world-leading standards of accountability and transparency.”
She also discussed how regulation can influence growth through seven drivers of productivity, one of them being the FCA’s own operational performance.
She said: “Following entirely justified criticism of the length of time it was taking some to become authorised or approved, we stepped up. We also started to share in greater detail our own performance metrics on a quarterly basis, to support the drive to improve our delivery so others could hold us to account for achieving it.
“Today, 97 per cent of authorisation cases are assessed within statutory deadlines. Better applications take the least time. Senior managers and Certification Regime (SMCR) applications take on average 40 days, 50 days ahead of deadlines.”
Pritchard said achieving this objective was not just more resource, investment in technology and training but “greater commerciality and a relentless focus on balancing all of our statutory objectives.”
“And in authorisations, in particular, we have driven improvements by bringing together private sector commercial experience at executive director and director level, and matched it with deep director-level regulatory experience.
"That combination of commerciality and regulatory experience is something we are focusing on more broadly as we drive changes in the way we operate,” she added.
Pritchard suggested international cooperation and development of consistent global standards were central to true competitiveness.
She said: “The relationships built carefully over decades by the FCA are helping us lead international discussions on issues of risk that fail to stick neatly to national jurisdictions. Those links enable us to make sure markets can work well effectively and efficiently across borders.”
Pritchard believed to properly support innovation, the FCA needed to work closely with other regulatory and technical standards as the industry changes and evolves internationally.
UK ‘open for business’
The UK regulatory framework was ‘open for business’ according to Pritchard, who said the regulators work on fund tokenisation, through the Asset Management Taskforce, has shown the UK regulatory regime is at the “forefront of innovation”.
She said: “Openness brings benefits, it can help promote greater economic dynamism through greater liquidity, increased competition, and act as a magnet for other international firms to do business in the UK.
