Financial Services Regulation - Essay Example

In the context of the United Kingdom, the global financial crisis that occurred between 2007 and 2009 exposed significant failings in the corporate governance of banks. Narain et al. (2012) stated that as a result, the United Kingdom government introduced various reforms of which the latest was the enactment of the Financial Services Act on 19th December, 2012. This new act created new regulatory frameworks for the financial service industry and it subsequently abolished the Financial Services Authority.

The two key regulatory frameworks that were created by this new act include the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority (Cunningham et al. 2012). This study seeks to discuss the features of the Prudential Regulatory Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority, Approved Person Regime. The discussion will further cover the extent to which the reforms associated with the Approved Person Regime will possibly solve some of the significant failings that were noted in corporate governance of UK’s banks in the past global financial crisis. . In the past financial crisis, Bakker et al. (2012) stated that the significant failings that were noted on the banks corporate governance were mainly attributed to poor risk management strategies as well as inappropriate ethics and culture of the banks’ board of governance.

Cunningham et al. (2012) on their part added that the failure of corporate governance was attributed to the failure in the attitude, behavior, and in certain circumstances the competence of the members of the board of governance. Therefore, this means that in order to prevent future failure of banks that can equally result to the collapse of the financial sector, it is important for organisations to cultivate an appropriate culture that is focused on delivering long-term obligations that are of benefit to the society.

In this regard, Abiad et al. (2008) noted that the right organisational cultures are mainly rooted underneath ethical frameworks that are strong and use principles in individual decision making rather than a rational criteria. Stringent re-enforcement is required to ensure that the members of the corporate governance act along the set principles, which will deter them from violating any ethical standard. The re-enforcements come in the form of regulatory authorities such as the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulatory Authority.

Features of the Financial Conduct Authority Approved Person Regime According to Cunningham et al. (2012), the Financial Conduct Authority was established with the main mandate of regulating financial firms that are in the business of providing financial services to people residing within the UK. Consequently, this means that the regulatory body is tasked