FSA must promote competition

A House of Lords committee says regulators must be statutorily required to consider the competitiveness of UK industries

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) and other economic regulators should be statutorily required to boost the competitiveness of UK firms, according to the outcome of a year-long report into economic regulators by a House of Lords Select Committee. The report, which was given a wide remit in November 2006, says that regulators including the FSA should “be statutorily required to facilitate the competitiveness of UK firms by: i) promoting competition; and ii) removing regulatory burdens from firms wherever possible”.