Financial Services

As we move towards a ‘principle based' regulatory regime, it will be interesting to see how the financial services industry reacts to this new culture. This change won't happen overnight, as it is expected to be a continuous process over the next few years … with a significant change of behaviour from both firms and the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

Looking at this optimistically, there is a real chance for our industry to demonstrate more innovation and develop better products, which are more thoroughly researched and, of course, more suitable for our customers!

Another threat … or is it an opportunity? is how our industry embraces the environmental issues. Thinking this through, it seems to me that theses two issues are in fact linked. So, maybe we will look back on 2007 and 2008 as genuine years of change, where the industry moved significantly forwards.

Eric Austin
Chair, Financial Services Council