Technical specialist at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Rory Percival said he is “annoyed” by firms who are “looking to keep the regulator happy”.
Speaking at the FE Investment Summit on 30 September, Percival (pictured) told delegates firms looking for ways to keep the FCA happy signals the practice of ‘tick-box compliance’ – “an approach that clearly misses what you need to do to keep the regulator happy”.
He said firms should be aiming to make clients happy instead to stand a chance to please the regulator.
He also dispelled a perceived myth that the regulator is more focused on risk profiling than having discussions with clients about moving outside of their initial risk rating.
He said: “When it comes to risk it’s not just about risk profiling, which is attitude to risk, tolerance of loss, there does seem to be a big focus on that still.”
