FIG Bulletin, 14 February 2020

General

Approach to supervising platforms: FCA Dear CEO letter

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published a Dear CEO letter to firms in its "platforms" portfolio, setting out the FCA's key concerns and expectations in supervising platforms. It may also be of interest to other firms that allow customers or their advisers to access retail investment products through an online portal.

The FCA emphasises that, following the implementation of the senior managers and certification regime, it expects the CEO to ensure there is clear accountability within senior management and for individuals to have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities and of the issues set out in this letter.

The FCA describes its supervision strategy for platforms regarding key harms relating to:

technology and operational resilience; third-party outsourcing; conflicts of interest; implementing the findings and recommendations of the Investment Platforms Market Study (IPMS); and preparing for the end of the transition period following the UK's withdrawal from the EU. The FCA says that it will target its supervisory focus on firms where there is evidence that the expectations in these areas are not being met. This is in addition to its wider supervision monitoring, such as ensuring firms are maintaining adequate financial resources and maintaining adequate CASS controls.

Behaviourally informed consumer policy: FCA Occasional Paper 51

The FCA has published Occasional Paper No. 51: Using online experiments for behaviourally informed consumer policy, in which the authors discuss the merits of online experiments for investigating consumer behaviour in different settings to inform consumer policy. The authors will look to further develop and discuss consumer policy research to improve consumer outcomes and welfare.

FCA speech on strategic and integrated approach to market integrity

The FCA has published a speech by Mark Steward, FCA Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight, on the FCA's strategic and integrated approach to market integrity.

Among other things, Mr Steward discusses the FCA's supervision of market integrity, the transaction reports and STORs it receives, the FCA's latest market cleanliness metric and abnormal trading volume metric, both of which indicate improvements in market behaviour, insider dealing and market manipulation.

FCA policy development update

The FCA has updated its policy development update (PDU) webpage, which...