Conduct of Business regulation: the FSA report on Equitable Life

Joanna Gray, Solicitor and Senior Lecturer, School of Law, University of Northumbria

As N2 draws closer it behoves us all to remember that whilst going forward into major legislative change may seem to herald a new era on many fronts – senior management responsibility, regulatory culture (risk-based supervision, etc) and internal compliance culture – in fact even the most major legislative change is rarely wholly transformative. All change is incremental and builds upon and draws on history which is why the lessons now emerging from the regulatory aspects of last year’s closure to new business of the Equitable Life Assurance Society are so instructive. It is worth taking a few moments, insofar as more pressing issues such as grandfathering of approved persons and getting to grips with transitional provisions allow, to reflect on one or two of the Financial Services Authority’s own conclusions into aspects of its discharge of its regulatory responsibilities revealed in its report on the “Review of the Regulation of the Equitable Life Assurance Society” published on 17 October.