Clause 14 - FCA to exercise functions under part 6 of FSMA 2000
Financial Services Bill
10:30 pm
Christopher Leslie (Nottingham East, Labour)
It relates to clause 14 because we are talking about handing a series of powers on listings and the admission of securities to the list to the FCA, and about its freedom, in reality, pragmatically to amend those particular listings. My view is that it is not possible, as with many other parts of the Bill, to judge the freedoms of the FCA purely in isolation, because they are relative to powers that exist in other regulators elsewhere in the world, given the fact that we are discussing the global movement of capital. It is necessary to recognise that the FCA—while it could make changes to the securities listings arrangements—may find that there are consequences if it were to do so, because of retaliatory or protectionist reactions from other jurisdictions.
Ultimately, we need a free and transparent market in securities trading. It is necessary that there is—if I can put it like this—proper consensus on a global basis, so that those jurisdictions talk to one another and try to conduct business in an efficient, reasonable and effective way. If they do not communicate, progress might break down and the ability of those activities to advance, and for the right courses to be chosen, could be inhibited. It might feel tempting to one jurisdiction to make a unilateral decision on how it should proceed, but there would then simply be opposite and equal reactions from other jurisdictions, teaching us the clear lesson that not much can be done in society globally, if one party takes unilateral action and other parties simply have to take equal and opposite actions in exchange. There is a relevant lesson in that situation, and it is something that the Minister should take to heart. It would be regrettable but understandable if those other jurisdictions were to consider it necessary to react to a spurious reaction by a jurisdiction such as the Financial Conduct Authority, as set out under clause 15.