‘We want an FCA that cares’: Rally calls for regulatory reform

Organised by the Transparency Task Force, a group of about 40 people rallied from The Royal Courts of Justice to Westminster Abbey, chanting: “What do we want? An FCA that cares. When do we want it? Now.”

Attendees also included former employees of banks who claim to have been scapegoated, as well as Scottish National Party MPs Martyn Day and John McNally. 

The British public are being let down.Andy Agathangelou, Transparency Task Force

Day told FTAdviser he agreed the FCA was “not fit for purpose”, a slogan touted by the TTF-led group. 

“It [the FCA] gives people a false sense of security", said Day. “[My constituents] have run into more issues with the regulator than they should have.”

Andy Agathangelou, founder of the TTF, led the rally. Ahead of yesterday, his team sent the FCA chief a letter outlining that the regulator “could, and should, be doing a much better job”, particularly in relation to a more “appropriate degree” of consumer protection.

Addressing the crowd yesterday, Agathangelou said: “We believe the Financial Conduct Authority has enormous scope for improvement. And I'm being very polite here. The FCA has been guilty of chronic and catastrophic regulator failure that has affected thousands of people that have lost life-changing amounts of money.

"I'm thinking in particular of the small businesses who were sold fraudulent, toxic interest rate hedging products. That is a fact…the British public are being let down.”

Addressing the FCA, Agathangelou said: “You are failing to provide an appropriate degree of consumer protection, even though that is one of the most important objectives of the regulatory framework.”

Individuals who attended the rally included an 81-year-old who had lost all her savings - £120,000 - to an investment scam, a former GP who claimed he was poorly compensated for missold swaps, and a pension scam victim who lost £250,000 alongside her partner and who is still waiting for a HMRC tax tribunal after 11 years.

"We want more regulation," one victim told FTAdviser. "When scams happen, not everyone is endorsed. Some victims always go uncompensated."

Nothing has changed. New head, new handle, same bloody broom.Paul Carlier, former Lloyds Banking Group trader

Financial adviser Steven Middleton also attended the rally. Speaking at the event, he highlighted one of the rally’s demands, an FCA which “isn't riddled with revolving door problems, whereby FCA staff leave and go to work for firms they were regulating”.

Middleton said: “We have to stop the revolving door between the FCA, the banks, and other governing bodies...We have to blow up that revolving door.”

The TTF sent a total of 36 demands enclosed in its letter to Rathi. 

Former Lloyds Banking Group forex trader and self-named 'whistleblower', Paul Carlier, also spoke at the rally.

He said: “Change isn’t enough. We’ve heard today at the Blackmore Bonds Symposium about Nikhil Rathi’s transformation project. Really?

“My own personal case with the FCA spans seven years now, and that covers Tracey McDermot, Andrew Bailey, and now Nikhil Rathi. Nothing has changed. New head, new handle, same bloody broom.”

Blackmore Bond was a mini-bond scheme which collapsed into administration in April. It owed a total of £46mn to investors, who in June 2020 were warned the property portfolio into which they piled funds was worth a fraction of the amount originally invested. 

Blackmore Bond used an online marketing company called Surge, the same agency which represented London Capital & Finance, to source new investor funds and paid it a fee of 20 per cent. 

Prior to the rally, TTF held a symposium to discuss the collapsed scheme, and how investors in it were affected.

The TTF has now also written to the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, John Glen, asking for a meeting to discuss the organisation's demands of the City regulator.

An FCA spokesperson said: “Over recent years, we have taken significant steps to protect consumers, not least reforming the general insurance market, consulting on a new duty to consumes all financial firms must abide by and supporting small businesses and borrowers during the Covid pandemic.

"As our new business plan makes clear, we are focused on shutting down problem financial firms who do not meet basic standards and helping consumers as they navigate the rising cost of living.”

ruby.hinchliffe@ft.com