Until recently, FSA has performed the supervisory activity in the financial sector in conjunction with the Bank of England as the main financial unit of the United Kingdom. In actual fact, the organization was the only regulator in the field of financial services in UK.

In 2013, the organization was divided into two separate departments: PRA and FCA. The first subdivision being authorized with supervision of larger companies, including banks and other financial organizations. The FCA range of powers covers such activities as supervision of brokers in the Forex market, thereby ensuring consumer advocacy and investment security protection. Generally speaking, the main designated mission of the organization is to maintain the integrity of the financial sector in the UK.

The Basic Premise

First of all, it is not unreasonable to study the major goals of the Financial Conduct Authority as a regulator:

• Monitoring of the financial sector companies treating their customers fairly, which as a key to securing a sound environment in this sector.
• Supervision of the activities of all subordinate companies. This implies not only issuing appropriate licenses to companies that provide quality services, but also the extermination of high-risk services provided by some financial organizations.
• Monitoring of the most up-dated broker offers for compliance with EU requirements. This helps to avoid market appearance of risky products.
• Control over the subordinate companies’ level of solvency. Be it that the regulator has detected a non-compliance with the marginal rate of solvency of a financial organization, it has the full right to block its current accounts. In this case, customers pass under the control of the Financial Conduct Authority and can hope to recover compensation in the amount of up to £ 25,000.

It is worth noting that, despite what looks at the first glance as complete autonomy of the FCA, the organization operates at the expense of the participating companies and at the same time adequately fulfills the functions and responsibilities that are entrusted to it by the Bank of England.

Insider Tips: Companies wishing to obtain a license from the FCA have to submit to a considerably tough audit. And it is common knowledge that not every broker is ready to pass such a due diligence test. Thus, those companies that managed to obtain a FCA license have a high level of reliability from customers and investors.