The new City Minister has said his focus will be on “simplifying accountability for regulators”, streamlining financial regulation and removing red tape to make the framework more effective to boost growth in the City, Bin Afolami has outlined at the Financial Times’ Global Banking Summit on Tuesday.
Afolami explained that he faces calls from City grandees to boost the Square Mile competitiveness and pledged to deliver on the numerous reforms to improve the state of the capital markets and to improve the competitiveness.
According to the commitment made, this will include changes to prospectus rules, investment and the wholesale markets review. Regulatory structures and systems will also be looked at to ensure a more effective approach is taken to boost both growth and competitiveness while allowing the streamlining of financial regulation.
The City Minister also outlined measures to make it easier to do business which includes promoting ownership via similar measures that were outlined in Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement last week, such as a possible Tell-Sid style share sale plan for Natwest.
Dr Henry Balani, Global Head of Industry & Regulatory Affairs for Encompass Corporation, said:“Doubling down on commitment to making the UK’s regulatory structures as robust and effective as possible is certainly a step in the right direction – but there is work to be done, and all parties, including Government, regulators, and businesses must come together to ensure the UK is firmly placed as an example to follow.
“There is no doubt that regulations will continue to develop at a rapid pace and, as they do, the need for technology-first compliance processes that utilise the best in RegTech solutions will only grow. Against a fast-moving backdrop, banks and financial institutions are increasingly leveraging RegTech as a key part of their compliance processes and also, crucially, to also accelerate growth – another point mentioned by the City Minister.
“The focus on “simplifying accountability” for regulators and streamlining regulation should bring significant benefits by creating a more straightforward, robust system. Going forward, focus should also be on fostering greater collaboration between regulators and RegTech providers to ensure those at the heart of developing and implementing regulations are appropriately educated on the innovation that is so important. By encouraging this, regulatory effectiveness will increase, how technology is leveraged will develop, and financial institutions will be able to focus on unlocking further growth opportunities.”
Bin Afolami, City Minister, commented: “There’s all sorts of mechanisms that are not brought together, not simplfied… A lot of this is actually simplyfying – not deregulating or anything like that, but simplifying what’s there.”
“We just have to make sure that we make it easy for them to focus on [regulation], and not mire them in too much red tape to achieve the growth and competitiveness that we want. FCA does have an incredibly broad list of responsibilities for consumers.”
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Government minister set to “simplify accountability for regulators”