A previous question from Field even prompted the suggestion the register could be improved.
Field: “Will you commit to making improvements to the FCA register, making it clearer when a company is suspended from certain activity?”
Butler: “We are currently reviewing the register including looking at some short-term changes, which would make it easier to use.”
Tweaking, not dismantling
Experts, while still cautious, believe the committee’s intervention is significant.
The executive chairman of public affairs firm Cicero Group, Iain Anderson, says: “The regulator’s response to Frank Field really leaves the way open to tweaking rather than dismantling the current regime. For me it’s a bandwidth issue for both the regulators and politicians with issues like Carillion and Brexit dominating.”
David Morrey, partner in the regulatory risk management practice of accounting and consulting network Grant Thornton, adds: “This is a significant development. As long as it was only the financial advice industry that was making this point then I think there was no chance the FCA would reverse their position and maintain a register for CF30s who will otherwise drop off the FCA register after SMCR. Now there is political pressure there is a genuine chance their position will change, although they would still clearly prefer an industry/trade body initiative to fill the gap.”
Deeks adds: “From an SMCR perspective, there was a groundswell of opinion that the proposed removal of the FCA register for CF30s was wrong. However, it reflects the sad reality that the FCA had to place IT and resourcing restrictions over its previously held view of the value of the register in helping to meet its consumer protection objectives.
“There was no public statement, in the consultation paper or any other communications, indicating that the register is no longer fit for purpose or that thinking has moved on, so it’s reasonable to assume that it still serves a valuable purpose. This is particularly true in relation to scams and fraud which have seen a material uptick since the Pension Freedoms came into force. The FCA has also used the register as a mechanism to flag cloned firms and issue alerts, all of which would have presumably ceased when SMCR came into effect.
“Notwithstanding the compelling industry response – both formally and informally – to the proposed change, recent findings in relation to DB transfers has also led to the FCA revisiting this. Megan Butler’s comments on DB transfers have indicated that the tide may indeed have turned and the proposed changes to the register may be reprieved. It is purely supposition, but we can envisage that a combination of SMCR backlash and reservation about the activities of some firms in the DB arena has led to the thinking that the FCA register for CF30s must remain.
“Whether it will be FCA-maintained as before, or firm-maintained but facilitated (but vitally not overseen by the FCA), we do not yet know. What we do know is that it looks like the, until recently, mundane FCA register, may live to fight another day.”
