Supervision: principles-based to outcomes-focused

FSA supervision is facing a shake-up in 2009, writes John Tattersall of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP: not only will the impact of the Supervisory Enhancement Programme, now apparently concluded [1], be felt over the next 12 months, but the new themes for supervision proposed in FSA’s Business Plan 2009/10 [2] promise to eliminate forever the suggestion that FSA regulation and supervision is “light touch”.

John Tattersall is a partner and Chairman of the Financial Services Regulatory Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP: +44(0) 20 7212 4689, john.h.tattersall@uk.pwc.com

Of course “light touch” is not a term that has ever really been favoured by the supervisor, but has been a somewhat sceptical interpretation of “the more principles-based regulation” approach which they clearly did favour, though both terms have certainly added to the positive perception of London and the UK more generally as an attractive place to set up a financial services business.