A necessary evil

A necessary evil According to the results of a practitioner survey, the regulator is struggling to keep everyone happy, with smaller players the most disgruntled by the FSA regime. And even measures undertaken by the FSA to improve the lot of its regulated firms are causing concern. As the FSA has said itself, the nature of regulation means it will never win many friends.

Despite the best efforts of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to ease its processes for regulated firms, businesses remain just as dissatisfied with the supervisor as two years ago, according to the outcome of a survey by the Financial Services Practitioner Panel (FSPP). However, there is an emerging pattern that divides the experience of wholesale firms, which tend to be happier with the regulator, and small retail firms, who on the whole feel short-changed.