FSA chief: We could have done better
Outgoing chairman of the Financial Services Authority, Sir Howard Davies, has admitted the watchdog under-performed in dealing with sliding stock markets.
Link: Confirmed: Sir Howard to leave FSA
He said the FSA had ‘run into difficulties’ and ‘could have done better’ in the first year since its creation, according to reports in The Daily telegraph.
Laying part of the blame on what he described as a ‘very, very difficult’ last two or three years, Davies conceded the FSA was under pressure to take more aggressive action amid the falling stock markets.
Davies has experienced a tumultuous year, and was accused by MPs of being ‘asleep on the job’ over the split-capital investment scandal.
Although the FSA embarked on an attempt to gain compensation for investors that were sold splits as low risk investments, he said the trusts were on the margins of the FSA’s responsibility.