The Financial Conduct Agency will need to have more “teeth” to prevent consumer detriment, the chairman of the Financial Services Authority has revealed. In his Mansion House City Banquet speech yesterday (20 October) Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) claimed the agency, which replaces the Consumer Protection and Markets Authority (CPMA), should have the powers that would “provide a real benefit for consumers”.

He told the audience of City workers: “In financial services the potential for the customer to be ripped off is simply far greater than in other sectors of the economy – and the consequences potentially more significant. The challenge for the Financial Conduct Authority will be how to counter that danger. Parliament will need to equip the FCA with new powers that will be needed to give the new approach effective teeth. For example the powers if necessary to demand changes in product terms or even, in extremis, to ban a product in addition to strengthened powers to tackle misleading financial adverts and requiring their withdrawal if necessary. This new approach, underpinned by some new powers can, I am confident, make a difference.”

But Lord Turner noted there also needs to be a realistic understanding that no system of...Read more here---> New regulator "needs teeth"