The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has set out plans to increase the fees financial services firms pay to cover the cost of regulation.
The minimum fee, which the FCA said has remained “largely unchanged” over the past decade, would increase from £1,151 to £2,200, under the proposals for 2022/23.
Speaking to Mortgage Strategy sister magazine Money Marketing ahead of the publication of the consultation paper this morning, FCA executive director of authorisations Emily Shepperd encouraged advisers to respond to the proposals.
She said the fee increase would better reflect the costs associated with the authorisation and supervision of 51,000 firms throughout the UK.
Shepperd explained the move is part of the FCA’s wider transformation programme to become a more “innovative and assertive regulator”.
“The FCA needs to act with more speed but not at the cost of quality,” she said.
While Shepperd acknowledged the increase “will look like a big leap”, she stressed the FCA is not an organisation looking to make a profit.
She indicated the regulator may not have been charging enough for the service currently being delivered, “let alone more work”.
And she said investment is required for the regulator to achieve its ambitions.
This includes more targeted work to “scope out the bad actors” – whether that be criminals or the incompetent and “mining data in a 21st century way” to become more responsive and reactive.
The FCA has committed to invest £120m over the next three years to strengthen its ability to identify firms and individuals of concern.
It said these changes are designed to benefit “both consumers and firms”.
In addition, the FCA is proposing changes to the calculation of consumer credit firm fees to bring them more into line with other firm fees.
The FCA expects to implement changes in time for the 2022/23 fee cycle