"Many of the problems we have seen in the market, from the crash of 2008 onwards, have been caused by regulated firms undertaking activities which are outside our ‘regulatory perimeter’"
The Mission has been designed to inform the FCA’s strategy and day-to-day work over the coming years.
In it, the FCA says that whilst its remit for taking action for regulated firms and activities is clear, "in practice the lines between regulated and unregulated activities have become blurred in recent years".
As a result, it plans to prioritise intervening outside of its perimeter if it believes an unregulated activity is illegal or fraudulent, has the potential to undermine confidence in the UK financial system, is closely linked to, or may affect, a regulated activity, or calls into question the suitability of the firm.
The FCA said it could seek to make rules or use other FSMA powers if it finds evidence of mis-selling by a firm of a product that it does not regulate.
In its Mission, the FCA said: "Our consumer protection objective is more closely tied to regulated activities. Yet it, too, provides scope for us to act when firms’ unregulated activities have potential to impact ‘consumers’ within the meaning of the broad definition in FSMA. For example, the FCA principle of paying due regard to the interests of its customers, and treating the customer fairly, would apply to unregulated generic advice provided as a preparatory step to providing a regulated service.
"Many of the problems we have seen in the market, from the crash of 2008 onwards, have been caused by regulated firms undertaking activities which are outside our ‘regulatory perimeter’ (ie activities that we do not regulate). Our objectives, to varying degrees, give us powers to intervene in many of these activities."
