Your IndustryOct 8 2015

‘Fos not fit for 21st century’

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The FCA may be a gold standard for firms when it comes to innovation, but Fos is not fit for the 21st century, Ian McKenna has said.

At the two-day Robo-Advice Conference on 1 October, organised by the FCA, the director at the Finance and Research Technology Centre said Fos was “conspicuous by its absence”, and he claimed the organisation “had a 20th-century mandate not fit for the 21st century”.

Mr McKenna said the City regulator was the gold standard globally – creating huge export opportunities for firms.

However, he called on Fos to be more forward-looking, adding: “We need regulatory certainty to be able to provide low-cost and automated advice, or it will hold back firms from fulfilling their export potential.”

David Geale, director of policy for the FCA, said that while firms on the other side of the pond had gained scale very quickly, the tools they have been using were nothing that “could not be done here now”.

Right to reply

A spokesman for the Financial Ombudsman Service declined an invitation to comment for this article.