Jonathan Evans, a former trade minister and MEP, supports the coalition Government’s plans to split the FSA.
However, he warns the new regulators must not adopt the FSA’s current policy of issuing a raft of consultation papers.
Evans says in his role as a board member of NFU Mutual he was bombarded with a huge amount of paperwork from the regulator.
“The FSA justifies the paperwork by saying it is committed to consultation with the industry but I think a more simplistic or simplified approach is needed.”
He also welcomes news FSA CEO Hector Sants is to stay on to oversee the FSA’s transition to the new structure and believes the industry will support continuity at the regulator.
“The FSA will not be actively changing individuals overnight and it is important they share their legacy knowledge.
“Political parties do not blame Hector Sants for the financial crisis but they blame the lack of clarity from the tripartite structure.
“The idea that we sack everyone would lead to such a lack of legacy knowledge and that would be a retrograde step.
“A major complaint from providers about the FSA is that as soon as they got to know individuals there was a change and they had explain the issues to someone new all over again.”
Evans believes this continuity will also help to build the relationship between UK and European regulators. This is particularly important as he believes EU authorities will start to play an even greater role in the UK financial services industry.
“The product of the financial crisis is that there will be significantly more European regulatory activity and the European Commission will be looking at a range of areas.
It will be a fairly activist regime and will not held at bay. We will have to work with what is emerging from Europe and have discussions with them.”
He is also calling for the European Commission to ensure financial services directives are being properly enforced in every country not just the UK.
The All Party Parliamentary Group has recently been reformed after the General Election and is currently recruiting MPs fresh to parliament. Various industry representatives have already addressed the Group on issues ranging from the RDR, Solvency II, long-term care and the pensions savings gap.
