FCA moots freeze on fees
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has proposed a freeze on application fees, and the minimum fees firms pay, as part of its latest 12-month business plan.
The regulator has published a consultation on its fees and levies for the year ahead. If the freeze is agreed, it will offer some financial relief to more than 17,000 FCA-regulated firms.
The fee freeze was mentioned amid four areas of priority for the regulator going into 2023/24.
It said it will focus on putting consumer needs first, future-proofing financial services, strengthening the UK’s position in wholesale markets and reducing financial crime.
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The high cost of living remains a concern and the regulator promised to allocate more staff to ensure firms support consumers who are struggling financially.
The FCA reiterated that last year it reminded 3,500 lenders of how they should be supporting borrowers in financial difficulty and told 32 lenders to make changes, leading to £29m in compensation being paid.
“We set out a bold vision last year of what we wanted the FCA to be, and we are well underway to achieving our objectives thanks to our talented colleagues and the better use of technology and data across our organisation,” said FCA chief executive Nikhil Rathi.
“With many consumers across the UK struggling with the cost of living and markets events causing concern, we have put in place vital changes over the past few years which mean we’re better set up to face these challenges.”
The new Consumer Duty is set to come into force in July, with the regulator committed to providing additional resource to make the transition smooth for both consumers and firms.
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Elsewhere, the business plan said the FCA will continue its work with partners to deliver the outcomes of the new Future Regulatory Framework (FRF) and Edinburgh Reforms.
More than £12m will be invested to prepare for the FRF, which aims to help support the UK’s wider economic growth and international competitiveness.
The regulator said new cost benefit analysis panels will be established to support the effectiveness of the FCA’s programme of work.
It also plans to set out further proposals to reform the listing regime in a bid to attract world leading firms and encourage competition in the UK.
The regulator wants to use the FRF to see if improvements can be made to asset management regulation. Consultation is already underway, and it will bring forward proposals later this year.
Finally, the FCA will continue to focus on fighting financial crime. It is already using machine learning to identify and remove scams, with hundreds of websites taken down as a result and more than 1800 alerts being issued during 2022.
Later this year, it will publish the first set of results against the outcomes and performance metrics included in its strategy.
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