National Audit Office finds 'significant delay' in FCA regulatory action

Financial services report

The National Audit Office (NAO) has found “significant delays” between the identification of issues in financial services and regulatory action taken by the Financial Conduct Authority.

In its Financial services regulation: Adapting to change report published today (8 December), the NAO said there has historically been a considerable lag between problems arising in the industry or impacting consumers, and the FCA taking action to tackle them. For instance, it highlighted that although the FCA had required crypto firms to comply with anti-money laundering regulations in January 2020, the regulator did not take any enforcement action against illegal crypto operators until February 2023. The NAO report, however, acknowledged that, at times, the FCA requires additional p...