Continuity and change

Timon Molloy, Editor

In the FSA’s Business Plan 2005/06 there are the first signs, however faint, that the single regulator is settling firmly into its role. All right, so it has been battered by the splits debacle and bloodied by its clash with L&G (though not so badly mauled as some of the mainstream press coverage would have you believe - see Adam Samuel’s article in this issue), but those two instances ac-/excepted, it would be churlish not to acknowledge the broadly successful integration of an additional 15,000 mortgage firms and general insurance intermediaries (MGI) and around a further 40,000 approved persons into the regulated sector, which brings the total inside the perimeter to 25,000 firms and approximately 180,000 approved persons. The FSA is also seeking to strengthen its skill base through a ‘core curriculum’ and by raising its graduate intake 50% to 60; it aims to have 10% of staff either on or from its graduate programme by 2006. The risk-based approach, widely admired by overseas counterparts, has bedded down and the FSA says that it will continue to review and improve the ARROW model for its supervision and theme work.