FSA admits regulating 'on the cheap'

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) should have acted more quickly in the advent of the banking crisis and has been guilty of supervising some of the larger firms 'on the cheap', according to one of its divisional heads. That was the assessment given by Jeremy Heales, head of insurance and assessment for the small firms and contact division of the regulator, speaking at the British Insurance Brokers' Association conference. When questioned about the FSA's failure to identify the warning signs of the current economic crisis, Heales said, during a morning panel debate, that the regulat...