Recommendation 18

HM Government · verbatim extract Not Addressed

Charles Randell and I are committed to ensuring the FCA implements all nine of the recommendations from Dame Elizabeth’s report,2 and the FCA Board and the Chairs of its Audit and Risk Committees provide independent oversight of this work. As Charles’ letter3 to the Economic Secretary to the Treasury set out, we aim to have completed the measures required to meet Dame Elizabeth’s recommendations by the end of the year, and we remain on course to do so. On 15 July, we published a detailed update4 on progress in implementing the recommendations to date. Beyond this update, Charles also explained that implementing the recommendations would deliver only some of the transformation that the FCA’s Board and I view as necessary to ensure the FCA regulates firms in a more agile, more targeted and more effective way. Our Business Plan for 2021/225 lays out the need for, and extent of, our ambition to become a regulator which: • Sets the bar high to support market integrity and sustainable innovation • Guards entry to markets by having a more robust gateway for new firms, so firms have high standards at the start and maintain them as they grow • Finds issues and harm faster through use of all available intelligence, supported by investment in new technology and approaches • Tackles misconduct to maintain trust and integrity • Enables consumers to make informed financial decisions • Is more proactive at the boundaries of the perimeter • Works with other organisations so we achieve more Alongside changes to processes and systems, our Transformation programme is also about investing in our people and reshaping our culture. To achieve our best, we need to create an environment where we are ready to respond rapidly to challenges and are empowered to act. I welcome the Committee’s recognition that a transformation of such scale will take time. I expect that comprehensively and sustainably delivering the cultural change necessary to realise the goals I set out above will take up to three years. Throughout this period, as our work in response to Dame Elizabeth’s recommendations illustrates, we are prioritising the implementation of key initiatives at pace. What I will set out here is how we will translate those initiatives into lasting improvements in our culture.