FIN.

FCA writes to Treasury Committee following Swift Review

The FCA recently published an independent “lessons learned” review (the Swift Review).

The FCA has now written a letter to the Treasury Committee, noting that it accepts almost all of the Reviewer’s recommendations and intends to incorporate them into its existing workstreams. It also sets out which findings and recommendations it disagrees with, along with the reasons why.

The FCA in its letter highlights that it is now a different organisation than the one examined in the Swift Review, and that many improvements have been made in the past few years, with more planned. On the other hand, it does acknowledge that it still has further to go in improving its reactivity and willingness to investigate. The FCA states that the Review reminds it of the need to proactively identify firms that it regulates which are making substantial amounts of money from new or rapidly growing products or services, enabling it to assess any possible unfairness and intervene as appropriate.

The FCA concludes with a reminder that it will report on the progress of its Transformation Programme at 6 monthly intervals until the recommendations from this Review, and the Reviews into London Capital & Finance and Connaught, have been substantially implemented.

Emma Bond