The Rt Hon John Gummer MP, Chairman of AIFA, when referring to the Financial Services Authority's statutory processes, said that process of itself does not equal accountability and that: "Our solutions are not focused on changing process, either by adding to it or complicating it further, they are concerned with putting less strain on the process which exists. This requires better prioritisation of initiatives and a timetable which allows one set of initiatives to be completed before another is begun."
He made it clear that this message was not just for the FSA because there are other agencies and Government departments, not to mention the EU, whose own priorities in this area seem to be composed without regard to their cumulative effect. Speaking about the FSA's rolling consultation programme, John Gummer suggested that: "Again, better prioritisation could be the answer. There should also be opportunities for better collaboration with the industry. This would help focus debate on the real issues."
He continued by saying that if firms were encouraged to become more engaged in the process of change, they would then begin to "take ownership" of those changes. This would result in firms implementing the changes because they could see how they would benefit their businesses, rather than just because the regulator had told them that they must.
John Gummer also said that the FSA should review its cost benefit analysis information in a way that would make it much more clear about whether or not the costs of past regulatory change, had been more or less than it had envisaged in the original CBA.
