George Osborne to abolish the Financial Services Authority
George Osborne has used this evening's Mansion House speech to confirm that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) will be abolished and power will be transferred to the Bank of England making Mervyn King one of the most influential and powerful central bankers in the world. The FSA was initially set up by Gordon Brown back in 1997 and while in the early days there was some scepticism regarding its success rate there is no doubt that improvements have been made over the last few years.
It is unclear exactly how the set up will work at this point in time but a new Consumer Protection and Market Authority will be introduced to the mix. It had seemed only days ago that David Cameron and George Osborne had been softening with regards to their initial plans to disband the FSA but obviously, whether under pressure from the Liberal Democrats in government or not, these plans have changed recently.
Mervyn King has welcomed his new role as the kingpin of the UK regulatory environment and suggested his new position will allow him to "turn the music down when the dancing gets a little too wild". Quite how this will affect executives at the FSA in the short term remains to be seen but there is certainly unrest within the authority.
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