Study lifts lid on regulatory costs

In answer to the growing criticism of its regulated firms about the costs of regulation, the UK commissioned Deloitte to identify the incremental costs of complying with FSA rules, ie costs that firms would not otherwise have incurred. IR&A looks at the results and what they will mean for the future of FSA regulation.

Costs of regulation rapidly became the number one concern of regulated firms in the first few years of the Financial Services & Markets Act and an area that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) urgently needed to address. It was highlighted by the Financial Services Practitioner Panel which became a major force in the campaign for a study on the costs of regulation to regulated firms. For the FSA’s part, the perception of rising and unnecessarily high costs held by firms was as much as an issue as the reality.