FSCS welcomes the FCA's business plan for 2021-22

Today FSCS welcomes the priorities set out in the FCA’s new business plan, and its mission to become a more innovative, assertive and adaptive regulator.

Caroline Rainbird, FSCS's CEO, said: “The FCA’s continued aim to become a forward-looking, proactive regulator will undoubtedly help bring down the rising FSCS levy, which we know is a real burden on many firms and sadly represents high levels of consumer harm experienced over many years. We have been clear that tackling the root causes of these harms is the only way to sustainably reduce the levy over the coming years, and it is very encouraging to see the detail in the FCA’s business plan around this.

“FSCS already works very closely with the FCA, sharing insights from the unique perspective we have on the finance industry. Through the claims we see, valuable data and trends emerge around consumer behaviour, firm failures and bad actors in the market. Our collective work in this space has already delivered great results, such as the recent announcement to ban claims management phoenixing. We look forward to continuing this relationship including a focus on consumer investments through the new coordination group announced in the FCA’s plan.

“As our latest Annual Report sets out, FSCS is performing extremely well. 2020/21 was our most successful operational year to date, with record levels of customer satisfaction, further improvements made to our claims service and strong progress against our strategy to promote protection and prevent consumer harm. We welcome the FCA’s review into the scope and coverage of our compensation as part of their consumer priorities, and we are already working closely with them on how to take this forward in the right way.

“We all recognise that the complex problem of consumer harm will only be solved by the entire industry working together, supported by those with the powers to make changes and enforce them. We will continue to support calls for change that will positively impact consumers, as we have most recently with the push for financial harms to be included in the Online Safety Bill.”

 

Media enquiries
Email: publicrelations@fscs.org.uk
Anthony Ozimic, m: 07939 177683
James Tweed, 020 7375 8646

Notes for editors
For more information about the role of FSCS see our Notes for editors page.