Accountability
The FSA is a private company limited by guarantee, and funded by fees paid by those it regulates.
The FSA is governed by a Board appointed by the Treasury. The majority of the Board members are non-executive. In addition to the Chairman and Chief Executive, there are currently three Managing Directors and nine non-executive members of the Board, of whom one, the Deputy Governor (Financial Stability) of the Bank of England, is an ex officio director. One of the non-executive members is Deputy Chairman and ‘lead’ non-executive. The non-executive directors check that we operate efficiently and economically, oversee our mechanisms of financial control and set the pay of the executive members of the Board.
Major regulatory decisions are taken, on behalf of the Board, by one of its Committees 'The Regulatory Decisions Committee' which comprises current and recently retired practitioners and non-practitioners, all of whom represent the public interest.
The legislation establishes the Financial Services and Markets Tribunal, run by the Department of Constitutional Affairs, which will consider afresh regulatory decisions in cases where we cannot reach an agreement with the firm or individual concerned. Our rules and practices are subject to competition scrutiny by the Office of Fair Trading. The OFT must report to the Competition Commission if it finds that any of them has a significant anti-competitive effect.