UK markets watchdog plans to simplify rules to boost competitiveness

By Huw Jones

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's financial watchdog on Monday launched two reviews of retail conduct and insurance rules to cut costs and improve competitiveness, now that a strict new duty to put consumers first has had time to bed down.

Under the rule introduced a year ago, financial firms must show the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) they put customers' interests first when designing and selling products - a measure aimed at drawing a line under past mis-selling scandals.

The FCA said on Monday it was asking the industry to identify retail conduct rules that could be scrapped or simplified if they overlap with the new duty, giving them until the end of October to do so.

"We now want to seize the opportunity of the Duty and the move to a clear outcomes-based approach to streamline our rulebook, lowering costs for businesses and supporting the competitiveness and growth of the economy," FCA Chief Executive Nikhil Rathi said in a statement.

A second review will consider simplifying customer protection rules for commercial insurance sold to businesses, a market worth 15.5 billion pounds ($19.88 billion) in Britain.

Last year, the FCA was given a new, secondary objective of supporting the international competitiveness of Britain's financial sector, piling pressure on the watchdog to show how it is cutting red tape, including easing company listings rules on Monday.

The watchdog published its first annual report on applying the objective, saying it accelerated the authorisation of firms, with 98% of applications assessed within legal deadlines, up from 78.9% in the first quarter of the financial year starting April 2022.

The objective was introduced after Britain was cut off from the European Union due to Brexit, and as UK companies still choose to list in New York.

In the City of London, home to Britain's main financial district, there has been scepticism over whether regulators have the necessary "mindset" to aid competitiveness and growth under the new objective, but Rathi said on Monday the FCA had been facilitating competitiveness "long before" it was mandated.

($1 = 0.7797 pounds)

(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Helen Popper)