Financial Regulators: Examinations

Baroness Wall of New Barnet Excerpts

Monday 22nd October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, one of the things that is very striking about the FSA is the speed with which it put in place an inquiry into what had gone wrong on Northern Rock. It was very frank about its failings and has changed an awful lot of things already. One should be fair to the FSA and recognise that it acknowledged the failings of its supervisory regime, which is already reflected in differences to its approach to training and continual assessment.

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet]

My Lords—

[Lord Elton]

My Lords—

[Noble Lords]

This side!

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet]

Would the Minister like to hazard a guess as to why the FSA, unlike many other professional organisations, feels that it is not important for the public to recognise the skills of those individuals by the qualifications that they hold, particularly in such an important area?

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, as I have said, I understand that the FCA is thinking about whether its training could be externally accredited. So it is indeed thinking ahead to whether that could be a possibility.