Wheatley: FSA was too robotic

Martin Wheatley, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has branded the previous watchdog - the Financial Services Authority (FSA) - "too robotic" in its approach to regulation.

In a speech in London yesterday, Wheatley criticised the FSA for pushing a "box ticking" culture in financial services which was "too captured by the interests of firms" and which did not always result in the best outcome for consumers. "Too often our response was overly reliant on regulation by rote. We built ever more rules and guidance about how to build a compliant process. It was robotic. Too captured by the interests of firms. "What we did too little was look at outcomes, so not ask ‘was the sale compliant?', but ‘did it achieve a good outcome?'" Wheatley said "mechanistic pr...