Being regulated
Once firms are regulated by us, we require them to meet the standards set out in our Handbook of Rules and Guidance and to supply us with information, so that we can monitor their business.
| In this section |
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| How we supervise firms 'Supervision' is our process of monitoring and regulating firms to ensure they are complying with the regulatory requirements. |
| Approved Persons As well as authorising firms to conduct regulated activities, we 'approve' particular individuals in firms who carry out particular functions ('controlled functions'). We require firms we regulate to ensure that their staff are competent to carry out the functions for which they are employed. |
| Paying Fees The FSA is funded entirely by fees levied on the industry we regulate. We consult annually on our fee proposals. |
| Reporting Requirements In the interests of improved efficiency, we are gradually moving to mandatory electronic reporting of this information by all firms, except credit unions. |
| Notifications and applications We require firms to notify us of certain changes in their business, for example a change of controller. Firms can apply to us for particular purposes - for example, to obtain a rule waiver or a variation of their permission. |
| Conduct of Business sourcebook We are changing some of our rules: COBS replaced COB (the FSA sourcebook for investment business and deposit-taking) and ECO (the specialist sourcebook implementing the Electronic Commerce Directive) on 1 November 2007. |
| Financial Promotions Firms we regulate must ensure that 'financial promotions' that they issue - advertisements, marketing material etc - are clear, fair and not misleading. |
| Treating customers fairly Our rules require firms to treat customers fairly. We have developed material based on findings of good and poor practice to help firms understand what this requirement may mean for them. |
| Unfair contract terms We have powers under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999 (the Regulations) relating to the fairness of terms in standard form consumer contracts. |
| Firms Online We are making increasing use of web technology to enable firms to communicate with us. Through Firms Online firms can access forms to enable them to send us information quickly and reliably. |
| Enforcing the Law Where we discover material failure to comply with our standards, we consider taking enforcement action. Where firms are thinking about covert taping and disclosure of private discussions between FSA staff whilst they are visiting firms, we consider this unacceptable and unlawful. For further details see Taping of FSA staff. |