We have been the single regulator for financial services in the UK since December 2001, when we were given our statutory powers by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA).
We have a wide range of rule-making, investigatory and enforcement powers to enable us to meet four statutory objectives.
We currently regulate over 29,000 firms that have a diverse range of sizes and activities. And we publish a single Handbook of rules and guidance for all authorised firms carrying out business in the UK.
In recent years, the government has increased the scope of our work: since November 2004 we have regulated mortgage business and since January 2005, general insurance activities. Since November 2009 we have regulated banks’ and building societies’ conduct of business, including payments services.
In January 2000, we set out our proposed approach to regulation in A New Regulator for the New Millennium. This explained the operating framework we intended to put in place to enable us to meet our statutory objectives.
As a risk-based regulator, our approach is based on a clear statement of the realistic aims and limits of regulation. Our approach recognises the proper responsibilities of consumers and of firms' own management, as well as the impossibility and undesirability of removing all risk and failure from the financial system.
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For us to consider something to be a risk, it must have the potential to cause harm to one or more of our four statutory objectives. So, we need to identify, assess, prioritise and address risks to these objectives, while having regard to the principles of good regulation. These objectives and principles are set out in FSMA, and we are therefore legally obliged to ensure that all aspects of our regulatory work meet these requirements.
As we face a large number of risks due to our very broad remit, we focus our resources on mitigating the risks that matter most. We explain this process in our operating framework.
