Teresa Pearce MP

There is a meeting in my ward Erith tonight which I am not able to attend as it is seems to be invitation only. I would have liked to go as there will be a speaker from ( or ex of I’m not sure) the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

The FSA has to regulate the finance sector and has  four statutory obligations which are :

• market confidence;
• public awareness;
• consumer protection; and
• the reduction of financial crime:

If any of you reading this are lucky enough to have been invited I would be really interested to know the speaker’s view on what failures of regulation by the FSA have led to the loss of jobs and homes that we are now seeing.

I firmly believe that one of the big factors that have caused the economic problems we now have is this:-

 We have created a society of people buying things they don’t need with money they don’t have.

I believe that the FSA has failed in its duty to regulate and I would be asking why?

The FSA has some big questions to answer, for instance an internal audit into the regulation of Northern Rock ( that’s where all this began! ) identified  serious failings which I believe pointed directly at the FSA for example the following points were made by the auditors ;

• A lack of adequate oversight and review by FSA line management of the quality, intensity and rigor of the group’s supervision.
• A lack of intensity by the FSA in ensuring that all available risk information was properly utilised to inform its supervisory actions.

It’s important that lessons are learned and I hope the discussion tonight is a good one.

I have written widely on this issue so if any readers want more info I am happy to send it.

Thanks.