At a Financial Crime Conference in London today, the acting director of the Financial Services Authority’s Enforcement and Financial Crime Division, Tracey McDermott, outlined the crime-fighting strategy that will be used by the Financial Conduct Authority once it takes over from the FSA.
“We expect there to be a lot of continuity in our work to tackle financial crime. The FCA will do many of the jobs currently done by the FSA,” said McDermott. Like the FSA, the FCA will strive to keep criminals out of the industry, to keep market participants forewarned and forearmed, and to educate the public about finance industry predators.
McDermott also introduced three new papers intended to clarify some of the new agency’s policies and circulate new reports. The first is “Financial Crime: A guide for firms,” which, as the title suggests, is an interpretive guide to useful crime control measures meant for financial firms. The second is a study of fraud detection and prevention among mortgage lenders. The third is a review of bank’s control over high-risk business situations. McDermott said that both reports were “the product of a style of intensive, intrusive supervision that will be carried into the FCA.”
The FCA has its sights set on cracking down on “boiler room” scams, fraudulent investment schemes, and market abuse cases.
Read more about this UK FSA announcement.
photo credit: Tarter Time Photography
