Campaigner blasts Sants on transition
Hector Sants, chief executive of the FSA, is acting before parliament has decided exactly how the proposed twin peaks regulation will work, IFA campaigner Joe Egerton has claimed.
Mr Egerton, founder of IFA lobby group Justice in Financial Services, said it was not possible for the regulator to know for certain how the twin peaks method of regulation would work.
He also said the proposed 2 April implementation start date was not certain because the government had not yet ratified the Financial Services Bill.
Mr Egerton was speaking in response to a Dear CEO letter written by Mr Sants in February in which he delineated the various duties firms must undertake to ensure a smooth transition to a twin peaks regulatory model.
He said: “In Mr Sants letter he has stated: ‘Central to the concept of genuine twin peaks is that both sets of regulatory objectives are different and determined by Parliament to be of equal importance.’
“But Parliament has so far decided nothing. The Bill has only just started its passage through Commons committee and the question of what to do when there is a clash between the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority is a matter of debate.
“I am sure members of both houses will be pleased to know that an official knows what they are to decide before they debate the matter.”
The two-page letter can be found on the City watchdog’s website. In it Mr Sants said the model would be introduced on 2 April, ahead of the full transition to the new regulatory model, which will take place in 2013.
The letter said: “The next major milestone in our transition is the introduction within the FSA of a twin peaks model.
“Our intention is to introduce this model from 2 April. It is designed to deliver, as far as possible, a model that will replicate the one which will be adopted by the PRA and the FCA.”