Data issues are the fastest-rising risks to the City says Financial Conduct Authority boss Andrew Bailey
Data poses “the fastest-rising risk on our landscape” for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), its boss, Andrew Bailey, said today.
The watchdog has scrutiny of issues around data “high up our agenda” because of financial services’ “heavy use of personal data”, Bailey said in a speech.
The data issues faced by the FCA include the loss of data by firms, and whether data use is “consistent with our rules and principles”, he added.
The watchdog has increased the resources it puts towards “operational risks”, including data issues, the impacts of technological change and the increasing complexity of financial crime.
Read more: Andrew Bailey calls for open financial services trade after Brexit
The remarks came at the City watchdog’s annual public meeting at the Queen Elizabeth centre in Westminster, with top regulators facing at times heated public questioning over issues such as the inability to punish Royal Bank of Scotland bankers over the actions of its infamous global restructuring group.
Bailey was asked about his commitment to his role, and he dismissed an allegation that he has an eye on the top job at the Bank of England.
Bailey, considered by many City economists to be a frontrunner to replace Mark Carney as governor in 2020, said: “I have said many times as a personal matter, I do not spend my time thinking about whatever in my life is going to come next.”
Meanwhile, on Brexit Bailey reiterated his commitment to “open markets” after Brexit, with the FCA currently working on a temporary permissions regime so that European firms “can operate the day after exit as they did the day before”.
The FCA has previously said it has budgeted an extra £30m in spending on preparations for the EU withdrawal, a decision which its chair, Charles Randell, today said meant the regulator was forced to make “difficult decisions elsewhere”.
“We are committed to keeping our relationships with European counterparts as close as possible, after exit and beyond,” Bailey said.
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