FSA Enforcement defence solicitor

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has announced changes to its operational structure, which will take effect from October 1, 2009.

Changes include: integration of retail and wholesale firm supervision into one supervision business unit which will ensure long term consistency and flexibility to the implementation of the FSA's supervisory philosophy; integration of risk identification, risk management and policy formulation into one risk business unit which will ensure the required focus on conduct and prudential risk; expansion of the existing Financial Stability team to become a new, enhanced division, focusing on macro-prudential issues and providing the central link for the FSA with the wider macro-prudential framework; creation of a new international division which will enable the FSA to significantly increase its engagement with international fora; integration of Enforcement and Financial Crime to form one division which will enable the FSA to better extract the synergies in this important area, to enhance delivery of its credible deterrence strategy; and Financial Capability division which will move from the existing Retail business unit to become a standalone division and will put the FSA in a better position to take forward the national roll-out of the Money Guidance service, as announced in the 2009 Budget.

One of the benefits according to the FSA will be the integration of Enforcement and Financial Crime to form one division under director Margaret Cole, which will enable the FSA to better extract the synergies in this important area, to enhance delivery of its credible deterrence strategy.

Hector Sants, FSA chief executive, said:

"This new structure completes the radical internal reforms that I initiated when I became CEO in July 2007.

"The new structure will underpin the radical changes we have made to our supervisory processes through the Supervisory Enhancement Programme (SEP). SEP was designed to deliver a significant increase in our supervisory resource and changes to the way we work, in particular for 'high impact' or systemically important firms. The programme is on track and will be completed by the end of this year."

"These changes will provide greater clarity, both internally and externally, as to the way we work and, in particular, reinforce our role as micro-prudential supervisor based on a model of integrated risk analysis and integrated supervision. I believe the actions we have taken since the crisis began have shown the effectiveness of this model. This reorganisation will ensure our changing working practices and the way we make our judgements are successfully institutionalised."

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