Call for Evidence about the FCA

Call for Evidence about the Financial Conduct Authority

Introduction

The Purpose Statement of the APPG on Personal Banking and Fairer Financial Services is:

“To identify aspects of personal banking and financial services where the service providers or regulators have not delivered, or are not delivering, excellence and appropriate consumer protection; to facilitate and encourage all stakeholders to work together to resolve past and present shortcomings, and to bring about positive changes.”

In an attempt to better understand whether the financial regulators “..have not delivered, or are not delivering, excellence and appropriate consumer protection…” we are gathering evidence on what people think about the Financial Conduct Authority. 

We may consider running a similar exercise about other financial regulators in due course but for now it is just the Financial Conduct Authority that is in scope in this particular Call for Evidence.  

The overall purpose of this Call for Evidence is to improve our understanding of how the FCA is perceived. If the evidence we gather indicates there are problem areas we can explore those issues further, with a view to proposing remedies. Ultimately therefore, this initiative may lead to fresh policy thinking and reform. 

With all that in mind, we have developed several sets of questions, with each set of questions relating to a particular context that may apply to the respondent. 

What are the Question Sets?

There are 7 Question Sets, as follows: 

• Question Set A, for victims of alleged pension and investment scams

• Question Set B, for victims of bank misconduct toward SMEs

• Question Set C, for victims of financial services misconduct from Payment Institutions and other non investment scams

• Question Set D, for Mortgage Prisoners

• Question Set E, for whistleblowers

• Question Set F, for other stakeholders*

• Question Set G, for current and former Financial Conduct Authority employees

Typically, respondents will reply to just one set of questions, but if applicable more than one set can be replied to.

*Question Set F, for other stakeholders, applies to individuals that have an important and insightful perspective but for whom none of the other question sets apply.   

How will my responses be handled?

The Call for Evidence is being handled by the APPG’s Secretariat and support staff, who will collate the evidence and provide it to the APPG’s members. Respondents’ information will only be shared as necessary to enable the successful completion of the exercise and it will not be shared beyond the scope of this Call for Evidence.

It is for each respondent to decide whether their name and/or their responses are put into the public domain. Also, any submissions put into the public domain will have the respondent’s Email address, phone number and postal address redacted.

Note that some respondents that initially provide written responses may be invited to be interviewed, whereby a video recording of their testimony is made available to the members of the APPG. It is for the respondent to decide whether to give permission for their video interview to be put into the public domain. 

Furthermore, respondents that provide evidence by way of video interview may also be invited to give evidence directly to members of the APPG.

Please note that we ask respondents to only give evidence that they are free to provide. It is entirely the responsibility of the respondent to ensure they take into account any agreement(s) they may have entered into.

Respondents may choose to skip answering any of the questions if they wish.

The process to follow

• Select the question set that relates to you.  You may respond to more than one question set if you have different experiences of contact with the FCA.
• Download it, as a Word document
• Provide your answers after each question
• Please leave blank any questions that don’t apply to you or that you do not wish to answer
• Save the completed document on your computer; you are welcome to convert it to a PDF if you wish
• Email your Word document (or PDF document) to Andy Agathangelou, Chair of the APPG’s Secretariat, at Email here.

Timelines

We would like all written responses to be provided by 5pm on Monday 28th March 2022, please. If you may require longer than that, liaise with Andy Agathangelou.

Other important points to note

Please note that:

• This exercise is about gathering evidence on what people think about the FCA; it is not about providing any assistance, guidance or advice on any case a respondent may have against the FCA, or any other entity.
• Respondents are asked to only provide answers to the questions given
• Respondents are asked to not provide any supplementary evidence or documentation

If you have any questions

Contact Andy Agathangelou by Email.

Next steps?

Please now select the question set that applies to you, download, complete, save and send to Andy Agathangelou by Email:

• Question Set A, for victims of alleged pension and investment scams – Download here

• Question Set B, for victims of bank misconduct toward SMEs – Download here

• Question Set C, for victims of financial services misconduct from Payments Institutions or other non investment scams – Download here

• Question Set D, for Mortgage Prisoners – Download here

• Question Set E, for financial services whistleblowers – Download here

• Question Set F, for other stakeholders – Download here

• Question Set G, for current and former Financial Conduct Authority employees – Download here
  

We believe this Call for Evidence about the FCA is an important initiative that will lead to a better understanding of the perceptions people have about our country’s primary conduct regulator for financial services.

We are very grateful for the input that will be provided by everybody that kindly steps forward to give their evidence and we hope that it will lead to progressive policy thinking and meaningful reform, for the benefit of all.

Kind regards,