About the Financial Services Authority (FSA)

Who are we?

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is an independent non-governmental body that regulates the UK financial services industry.

We are accountable to Treasury Ministers and, through them, Parliament. We are operationally independent of government and funded entirely by the firms we regulate.

The Treasury appoints the FSA Board, which currently consists of a Chairman, a Chief Executive Officer, two Managing Directors, and ten non-executive directors (including a lead non-executive member, the Deputy Chairman). The Board sets our overall policy, but day-to-day decisions and management of the staff are the responsibility of the Executive Committee.

What do we do?

We are the independent body that regulates the financial services industry in the UK.

We were established in 2001 and given our four statutory powers by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000:

• Market confidence - maintaining confidence in the financial system.
• Financial stability - contributing to the protection and enhancement of the UK financial system.
• Consumer protection - securing the appropriate degree of protection for consumers.
• Reduction of financial crime - reducing the extent to which it is possible for a business to be used for a purpose connected with financial crime.

These are supported by a set of principles of good regulation which we must have regard to when discharging our functions.

Our objectives are:

• Provide political and public accountability. Our annual report contains an assessment of the extent to which we have met these objectives. Scrutiny of the FSA by Parliamentary Committees may focus on how we achieve our objectives.
• Govern the way we carry out our general functions e.g. rule-making, giving advice and guidance, and determining our general policy and principles. So, for example, we are under a duty to show how the draft rules we publish relate to our statutory objectives.
• Assist in providing legal accountability. Where we interpret the objectives wrongly, or fail to consider them, we can be challenged in the courts by judicial review.

The FSA is currently delivering a significant programme of change in the regulatory framework and in its supervisory model. Read more

We need you

Our success depends on the performance of our people. The industry we regulate touches the lives of virtually everyone in the country, contributing over 5% of the UK's GDP and employing over a million people. The UK is home to thousands of financial services firms - many of them from overseas - and is also home to one of the largest financial markets in the world. So it will come as no surprise that we seek to attract quality people to take on the responsibilities of overseeing such a dynamic and complex industry.

Related information

• FSA
  
• Graduate careers
  
• Annual report
  
• Business plan
  
• Media centre - Here you will find our press releases, statements and briefing notes, useful information about the FSA, and other topics of interest.